# Vowel harmony



## Nahuel O Tavros

Hi, everyone. 
I have a doubt as regards vowel harmony in Turkish.
Does a vowel exert its influence on the neighboring vowel only on the last one following, or is the whole sentence affected by the principle.
Thank you and have a good week!

Nahuel


----------



## psikolog

Hi Nahuel

We seek vowel harmony in words. Suffix comes according to root. There are two rules about this. The first looks if the vowels in the word all are front or back. If yes, then the word has harmony. The other is about being rounded or wide

Hope this will be helpful

B


----------



## Nahuel O Tavros

I guess your information is useful but it doesn't answer my question.
I wanted to know if vowel harmony has influence on the last syllable or on all of the syllables of the word.
Thank you!


----------



## Rallino

When you add a suffix to any word, you pay attention to the last vowel only.

Tarif + ler/lar --> tarifler (the suffix harmonizes with the i).

Kitap + ler/lar --> kitaplar (the suffix harmonizes with the a).


----------



## psikolog

Nahuel O Tavros said:


> I guess your information is useful but it doesn't answer my question.
> I wanted to know if vowel harmony has influence on the last syllable or on all of the syllables of the word.
> Thank you!


All syllables which are added to the root are affected

Hor+ul+tu+su(n)+dan. The root is hor (a mimetic word comes from sound of snoring). As you see all the suffixes are back vowel

There is one (and only, if I'm not mistaken) word which is affected by the word comes before: de/da (also)

Ali *de* geldi. (Ali came too)
Orhan *da* geldi. (Orhan came too)


----------



## Nahuel O Tavros

OK. Thank you. I hope to learn more about vowel harmony.
Bye,

Nahuel


----------



## TurkishR

> Does a vowel exert its influence on the neighboring vowel only on the last one following, or is the whole sentence affected by the principle.


Yes! It does, but sometimes. But it's never the whole word, just some of the letters in the very end.

1. There is something called "ünsüz yumuşaması." If we were to hard-translate it, it means "the softening of the consonants"

Conditions:
*a)*The last letter is *"p – ç – t – k" *and* b) the suffix starts with a vowel.

"p – ç – t – k" *turns into *"b – c – d – g/ğ," respectively.*

_Çocuk = Child, Kid
Çocuğum = My child
Dolap = wardrobe
Dolabı = wardrobe(accusative form, probably the object of the sentence)_

2. The other thing is "ses düşmesi." If we hard-translate it, it means "the fall of the letters"

Both consonants and vowels can "fall."

a) When vowels fall
_Oğul = Son
Oğlum = My son
Beyin = Brain
Beynimin Son Hücreleri = The last cells of my brain. (or, more accurately: My last brain cells)

It might happen in verbs as well.

Bekle- = wait
Bekliyorum = I'm waiting._

b) When consonants fall
----> As far as I know, it only happens when the word gets the "cık/cik" suffix. What is "cık/cik" suffix? It makes the word look cute. 

_Ufak = Little/Petite
Ufacık = Teeny-weeny_
When you say "something is ufacık" it might mean "very little" or "Awww, it's so smalll look at that it's so cute!!"

You can use this "cık/cik" suffix with every single noun in Turkish, it may sometimes be informal but it always works."
It may sometimes be derogatory as well but it still wouldn't be rude, depends.

Extra information: The following suffixes never ever change or mutate

*"-ki, -yor, -gil, -ken"*

Hope this helped!


----------



## entangledbank

The basic principle is that _suffixes_ harmonize with the one _previous_ syllable. It doesn't apply to later words in the sentence, only to suffixes attached to one word.

As Rallino says in #4, you only look at the last syllable: _kitap_ ~ _kitaplar_ (look at the _a_, not the _i_ before it).

Each suffix follows this rule _separately_. The suffix for "my" is -_im/ım/um/üm_, so _göz_ "eye" selects -_üm_: _gözüm_ "my eye". The plural suffix is _-ler/lar_, so "eyes" is _gözler_. The word for "my eyes" attaches the "my" suffix to this, and only looks at the last syllable, which has _-e-_. So "my eyes" is _gözlerim_. The suffix _-im_ is only affected by the previous syllable, _-ler_, not by the earlier _ö_.

Related to this word _göz_ is the verb _gör-_ "see". The past tense "I (did)" is _-d-_ followed by that same -_im/ım/um/üm_, so "I saw" is _gördüm_. The _ü_ is chosen by the _ö_ of the previous syllable. In the present tense, there is the same choice of vowel followed by the unchanging suffix_ -yor_. So "he/she is seeing" is _görüyor_ - again _ü_ is chosen by _ö_. But now when you add the "I" ending, the previous syllable is _-yor_. The ending is chosen by _-o-_, not by earlier vowels, so it is _u_: _görüyorum_.

I said it doesn't apply to later words. There is an exception where a following word is grammatically attached to the previous word. The question word is _mi/mu_/etc. with vowel harmony chosen by the previous syllable, but it is written as a separate word: _gördüm mü?_ "did I see?"

(Apologies to native speakers if I haven't got this 100% right.)


----------

