it is easier to pronounce and in Turkish the spelling must reflect this change for the rules of phonetics to operate. and Soft Letter Equivalents
p equivalent to bf equivalent to v
з equivalent to сs no equivalent-equivalent to ds no equivalent -
до equivalent to gh no equivalent-last three - s, 5, h - do not have a unvoiced form, as they are not voiced consonants, but they do affect the added suffix as they are considered as hard consonants: - delicious - becomes - nefistir - it is (certainly) delicious - not nefisdir. sabah - morning - becomes - sabahtan - from morning - not sabahdan gunes - sun - becomes - gunesten - from the sun - not gunesden.-k terminates a word it nearly always changes to soft-g when suffixes beginning in a vowel are affixed to that word. The exceptions where no change is made are very few and will not be discussed here.ending in-K change to-G-when a vowel is addedConsonant Mutation Examples
kopek - dog kopegim - my dog-leg bacagin - your leg-ankle topugu - his ankle-wrist bilegimiz - our wrists? zluk - spectacles g? zlugunuz - your spectacles
durak - bus stopduraga - to the bus stop-will seegorecegim - 1 shall see
yaptik - we did yaptigimiz - that which we did-glass (tumbler) bardagi - his glassconsonant change from-k to soft-g-when adding suffixes is the most widespread mainly because so many Turkish words end in a terminal-kthe word ends in-nk. Then the terminal-k changes directly to a hard-g as it is totally impossible to utter the letter cluster-ng plus an added vowel. Examples where terminal-nk changes to-ng when adding a vowel
denk - bale, equation becomesdengim - my bale
ahenk - harmony, accordbecomesahengi - its harmony
kepenk - shutterbecomeskepenginiz - your shutter
renk - color becomesrengimiz - our colourof the other consonants which change to their soft form in similar fashion are as follows:
-p changes to-b in front of suffixed vowels
c changes to-c in front of suffixed vowels
t changes to-d in front of suffixed vowelsExamples of Consonant Change Further Consonant Mutation Examples-book kitabin - your book-advice ogudiim - my advice
tat - tastetadi - its taste
ilac-medicine ilaci - his medicine-tree agacin - the tree'sgeneral rule is that single syllable words do not soften their final hard consonants in line with the general rule, hence: Hard Roots - Single Syllable Words
ак - whiteaki - the white / his white-horseati - the horse / his horse-additioneki - the addition / its addition-meateti - the meat / his, her, its meat-migrationgocu - the migration- ropeipi - rope
kac?- How many? kacinci?- Which one?
kok - rootkokii - the root / its root-arrowoku - the arrow / his arrow-grassotu - the grass / its grass-hairsagi - the hair / his, her hair-handlesapi - the handle / its handle-faultsucu - the fault / his, her, its fault-milksutij - the milk / his, her its milk-threeiicu - the three / trioof course there are some exceptions to this rule where a single syllable word does take on its soft form when adding a vowel suffix: Soft R...
