Learn the top five reasons you should be learning Turkish right now
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Ece: Hi everyone. I’m Ece. |
| Gina: Hello! I’m Gina. Welcome to TurkishClass101.com. This is All About Lesson 1 - Introduction to Turkey and the Turkish Language. |
| Ece: Together, we'll be your guides to everything Turkish. |
| Gina: That's right! |
| Ece: …And indeed, it’s quite hard when you think about Turkey’s long history and geography… But we’ll at least try to give you an introduction to the Turkic countries and languages during this lesson. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Gina: Wait, what do you mean by “countries” and “languages”? |
| Ece: You know Gina, there are six other Turkic States in the world apart from the Republic of Turkey, which are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, North Cyprus and Azerbaijan. |
| Gina: Ah, of course. |
| Ece: And also, there are many Autonomous Turkic Republics located in Asia, like Chuvashia, Tatarstan, Tuva, Altai, Karachay-Cherkessia, Sakha, Kabardino-Balkaria, Gagauzia, Crimea, Bashkortostan, … |
| Gina: Woah-woah, hold on a second… I have to admit I haven’t heard of some of those before. |
| Ece: They are all recognized and self-governed autonomous republics, under the Russian Federation or People’s Republic of China. Then there are also many other Turkic minorities within various countries in the Middle East and the Balkans. |
| Gina: Ah yes, now I understand - that’s what you meant by “Turkic countries”. |
| Ece: Indeed! It’s said about 200 million people in the world speak a Turkic language as their mother tongue. |
| Gina: That’s a lot! Do they all speaking in the same way though? |
| Ece: Hmm, let me explain this way - Historically speaking, they are all branches with the same origin. But they evolved in their own way depending on geography, how much they interacted with other countries, and religion. These days, they use different alphabets too. However, a Kirgiz and a Kazakh, or a Turk and an Azerbaijani person can understand what the other is saying when they’re using their own tongues. |
| Gina: That’s fascinating! But here on TurkishClass101.com, we’ll teach the Turkish spoken in Turkey. |
| Ece: Yes, and if you need to learn any other Turkic languages afterwards, it’ll be no different to adapting to a dialect. |
| Gina: True. Let’s talk about the characteristics of Turkish now. |
| Ece: Okay. The Turkish language and its sub-branches are members of the Ural-Altaic Language Family that also includes Japanese, Korean, Tungusic, Mongol and their derivatives. |
| Gina: Our listeners who have seen at least a few pictures of historical structures from Turkey, might get confused because all the scripts are written in Arabic letters. |
| Ece: That’s a good point Gina. Turks began accepting Islam after their first encounters with Arabs in the 8th century. At that time, Arabs and Persians had the most developed level of science and art in the world. So Turks decided to unify their alphabets with the Arabic script, and were the world leaders in knowledge for many centuries. In 1928, the founder of the Turkish Republic decided to replace the Arabic script with a modified Latin alphabet. |
| Gina: You heard listeners… It’s just the alphabet which is the same, not the languages. |
| Ece: Yes, although Turk-Islamic Empires like the Ottomans and Seljuks had loanwords from Arabic and Persian, especially in glossaries of religious terms or poetry, it is the same Turkish language no matter whether it’s written using the Latin, Arabic or Turkic scripts. |
| Gina: Yeah, I was wondering that… How about the alphabet before the Arabic script? |
| Ece: They used old Turkic scripts like Göktürk or other variations of the Proto-Turkic Alphabet, which is said to be as old as 18 thousand years. |
| Gina: Wow, that’s one of the oldest scripts of humankind! But going back to today’s Turkish alphabet, what could we say about it? |
| Ece: It contains 29 letters in total - 21 consonants and 8 vowels. |
| Gina: Are they direct equivalents of what we find in the English alphabet? |
| Ece: Hmm, most consonants are, yes. But, what’s more exciting is that they’re actually pronounced almost as they’re written! |
| Gina: What do you mean by that? |
| Ece: It means that every single letter corresponds to one single sound, all the time and everywhere you see it. |
| Gina: That’s good news! dCan we say that Turkish is a language that’s totally phonetic and uses a modified version of the Latin script? |
| Ece: You’ve already said it! |
| Gina: I’m sure the listeners are relieved by that. Let’s give them more encouragement and list some quick reasons why it is crucial in today’s world to learn Turkish. |
| Ece: This will be a very long list though! |
| Gina: You’re right… So listeners, we’ll just give a general outline here, but you can find more details in the lesson notes, so be sure to check them. |
| Ece: Alright, here we go - From a historical point of view, Turkish was the official language of world-ruling empires like the Ottomans, Seljuks, Huns, Avars, Uyghurs, and Göktürks, as well as regional powers like the Baburids, Timurids, Khazars, Safavids, Qajars, and many more. Naturally their official documents, literature and pieces of art were written in the Turkish language. |
| Gina: Thousands of Turkish words were taken as loanwords by the Balkan, Central European and Middle Asian Languages during Ottoman rule. Turkish is still practical in all post-Ottoman territories from the Balkans to India, from Africa to Caucasia. And today, Turkish soap operas are getting quite famous and being broadcast in more than 40 countries worldwide. |
| Ece: From the linguistic point of view, it’s a polite, rich and poetic language that has as a pleasant sound, especially because of vowel harmony. |
| Gina: Also, it has no irregularities, and very orderly grammar! In fact, recent international research showed that Turkish children are the fastest learners of their native language. There’s extensive freedom in word placement, and neutrality in gender and plurality. With suffixes, verbs at the end of sentences and post-positions, it’s a very different mentality to English. |
| Ece: Turkey is a tourism hotspot with great hospitality. Turkey welcomed more than 30 million tourists in 2011, and was the 5th most popular tourist destination in the world. Because it forms a bridge between Asia and Europe, Turkey has been a melting pot for many cultures throughout history. So by learning Turkish, you can experience how it feels to live in a culture where Asia meets Europe. |
| Gina: Dear listeners, we’ve only just begun talking about Turkish! We assure that you’ll be more amazed with each lesson! |
| Ece: That’s right. By learning about the Turkish language, culture and history, you’ll feel like you’re in a place where past meets present. |
Outro |
| Gina: Okay, that’s all for now. |
| Gina: Make sure you check the lesson notes for more information. Till next time, bye everyone! |
| Ece: Hoşça kalın! |
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