# the letter "ğ"



## modus.irrealis

Hi,

I was leafing through a Turkish grammar to get a general sense for the language but I was confused right at the beginning with how the letter ğ is pronounced. If I understood what I read, it has no sound of its own but makes a previous vowel long, and if there's a vowel after the ğ, the elongated vowel will swallow the following vowel up. Is that right?

For example, to take a random example, is ağız pronounced [a:z], where the : is for length?

Thanks


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## Honour

i could suggest you something very simple . Omit it when reading the word, it would be 99% well.Ağız could be read as aız.

If you have some idea on itallian then it is similar to the sound in fi*g*lio, vo*g*lio, *g*li etc.

It is a liason between two vowels and it directs you to read the preceding vowel open, i mean longer.


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## Chazzwozzer

I think this information will be good for you.


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## ukuca

I have a foreign friend. he told me that before, he had overcomed this problem just by lenghtening the preceding vowel, and then he got used the other particular ones. I guess that would be an easy way for start.


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## modus.irrealis

Thanks for your responses. I think for now I'll stick to the simple approach , and if I do a deeper study of Turkish, I'll pick the details later. Thanks again.


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## CapnPrep

Hello everyone, the Wikipedia page linked in message #3 says that 

"When found after the vowels e, i, ö or ü, the ğ is pronounced as _y_ (consonant)."

Is this true in all contexts or only if another vowel follows? Or does it also just depend on the particular word?

E.g., how do you pronounce _göğüs_ versus _tavuk göğsü_?


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## ameana7

It isn't true in all contexts. For example we don't say "göyüs" or "tavuk göysü". It is something like "gööüs". I cannot recall a word with "ğ" which is pronunced as "y". Some people may say "göyüs" but it is misspelling. 
The word "eğer" means "if" in English. It can be said as "eyer" but then it means "the packsaddle of an animal." It shouldn't be spelled like this. There is another word "meğer" which means "it seems that, apparently" but you cannot say as "meyer".


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