Turkish

**Turkish** (Turkish: [1] *Türkçe* (help·info)), also referred to as **Istanbul Turkish**, or **Anatolian Turkish**, is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other parts of Eastern Europe. Turkish is also spoken by several million people of immigrant origin in Western Europe, particularly in Germany.

The roots of the language can be traced to Central Asia, with the first known written records dating back nearly 1,300 years. To the west, the influence of Ottoman Turkish—the variety of the Turkish language that was used as the administrative and literary language of the Ottoman Empire—spread as the Ottoman Empire expanded. In 1928, as one of Atatürk's Reforms in the early years of the Republic of Turkey, the Ottoman script was replaced with a Latin alphabet. Concurrently, the newly founded Turkish Language Association initiated a drive to reform and standardize the language.

The distinctive characteristics of Turkish are vowel harmony and extensive agglutination. The basic word order of Turkish is subject–object–verb. Turkish has no noun classes or grammatical gender. Turkish has a strong T-V distinction and usage of honorifics. Turkish uses second-personpronouns that distinguish varying levels of politeness, social distance, age, courtesy or familiarity toward the addressee. The plural second-person pronoun and verb forms are used referring to a single person out of respect. On occasion, double plural second-person "sizler" may be used to refer to a much-respected person.

## Resources

### Rosetta Stone

* Online service only.
* Teaches a range of set phrases, rather than trying to instill a grasp of grammar.
* **Generally considered overpriced and ineffective.**

### Pimsleur

* 1 level available with 30 total lessons + bonus material
* Recommended as a learning tool.
* **Strongly recommended not to be used as the only tool.**
* Covers mainly speaking and being able to hold a conversation.
* Easy to use, just open the audio file and repeat.
* http://www.pimsleur.com/Learn-Turkish Try a free lesson!
* Very expensive.

### **Memrise**

* Online Turkish Course - Good for vocabulary and has pronunciations of a lot of words.
* Hacking Turkish Series created by Paris Obdan - Good for Turkish grammar and starting off while not being too dry. Currently has parts 1, 2, 3 and a basic vocabulary course.

### Language Transfer

* Does get into basic sentence structure and formulation. The student's pronunciation is not that good though and she mumbles a fair bit.

### **Books and .PDF files**

* Tutunamayanlar - Oğuz Atay (the author uses a very complex and unusual Turkish, so avoid this book until you are confident about your skills. Even the native speakers have a hard time understanding this book.)

### **News**

* Milliyet
* Hürriyet
* Cumhuriyet
* Vuslat Haber
* Zaman Gazete
* Radikal (defunct)
* CNN Turk
* Anadolu Ajansı

### **Movies and TV**

#### Subtitles

* Subscene
* Findsubtitles
* Divxplanet
* Turkcealtyazi
* Sublearning - learn languages from movie subtitles. Flash cards of movie lines in 62 languages
* (add more if you know them)

#### Movies

* Zeki Demirkubuz(Director)
* Nuri Bilge Ceylan(Director)
* Semih Kaplanoğlu(Director)
* Cem Yılmaz(Director&Comedian&Actor)
* Atıf Yılmaz(Director)
* Yavuz Tugrul(Director)
* Ertem Eğilmez(Director)
* Reha Erdem(Director)
* Fatih Akın(Director)
* Çağan Irmak(Director)
* Mustafa Altıoklar(Director)
* Serdar Akar(Director)
* Sinan Çetin(Director)

#### TV shows

* Bizim Evin Halleri ***(Life, Family, Drama)*** (Total Turkish family presentation, well depicted. Boring but can teach lots about Turkish people + Longest lasted Turkish TV show)
* Leyla ile Mecnun ***(Comedy)***
* Geniş Aile ***(Comedy)***
* *Muhteşem Yüzyıl (****Historical Drama) =>*** Show about political affairs and drama in the Ottoman Empire during its Golden Age under Suleiman I, basically a historical House of Cards
* Behzat Ç. **(Crime, Drama)**
* Çemberimde Gül Oya **(1970s Turkey, Historical Drama) =>** What is good about this tv series is it teaches you a bit about the country's history
* Arka Sokaklar

#### Cartoons

* Pembe ve Mavi ***(Adult, Comedy)***
* Fırıldak Ailesi ***(Comedy)***
* Dede Korkut Hikayeleri ***(History, Fantasy)***
* *More can be found at TRT Çocuk Youtube Channel*

#### TV stations

* Star TV
* TRT TV
* Show TV
* Kanal D

### **Music**

* Teoman
* Cem Adrian
* Mor ve Ötesi
* Erkan Ogur
* Barış Manço
* Fazıl Say
* Cem Karaca
* Moğollar
* Erkin Koray
* Tarkan

### **Brotips**

* Uz-Translations
* Evrim Ağacı (Tree of Evolution) - A very comprehensive website focusing on the theory of evolution.
* Natal Astroloji