Language/Turkish/Pronunciation/Alphabet-and-Pronunciation

Turkish Alphabet & Pronunciation

Hello Polyglots,

In today's lesson, you will learn how to write the different letters of the Turkish alphabet, how to pronounce these letters whether it is through the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), or through a video with the pronunciation of the letters by a native speaker.

The Turkish language is written using a modified version of the Latin alphabet. In this lesson, we will learn about the Turkish alphabet, its letters, and pronunciation. After mastering the alphabet and pronunciation, you can also explore other related lessons such as Turkish Vocabulary - Personalities, Turkish Grammar → Turkish Alphabet → Pronunciation, and Turkish Vocabulary - How to Say Good Bye to further enhance your Turkish language skills.

You will also find at the end of this lesson a virtual keyboard to be able to type each special character of this language. So, let's dive into the world of Turkish pronunciation and alphabet! 📚🇹🇷

Turkish Alphabet

The Turkish alphabet consists of 29 letters, which are as follows:

A, B, C, Ç, D, E, F, G, Ğ, H, I, İ, J, K, L, M, N, O, Ö, P, R, S, Ş, T, U, Ü, V, Y, Z

The Turkish alphabet contains six additional letters that are not found in the English alphabet: Ç, Ğ, İ, Ö, Ş, and Ü.

Pronunciation

Letter	Sound	pronunciation example
A a	/a/	a' as in father
B b	/b/	b' as in bike
C c	/dʒ/	j' as in job
Ç ç	/tʃ/	ch' as in church
D d	/d/	d' as in date
E e	/e/, /ɛ/	e' as in red or 'a' as in car
F f	/f/	f' as in find
G g	/ɡ/, /ɟ/	g' as in go
Ğ ğ	/ɣ/1	No equivalent: listen to the video below
H h	/h/	h' as in high
I ı	/ɯ/	e' as in open
İ i	/i/	i' as in machine
J j	/ʒ/	s' as in pleasure
K k	/k/, /c/	k' as in kilo
L l	/l/, /ɫ/	l' as in love
M m	/m/	m' as in make
N n	/n/	n' as in new
O o	/o/	o' as in more
Ö ö	/ø/	u' as in burn
P p	/p/	p' as in paint
R r	/ɾ/	the 'r' as in far
S s	/s/	s' as in sit
Ş ş	/ʃ/	sh' as in shine
T t	/t/	t' as in start
U u	/u/	u' as in ultimate
Ü ü	/y/	u' as in cube
V v	/v/	v' as in victory
Y y	/j/	y' as in you
Z z	/z/	z' as in zoo

Turkish Alphabet and Approximants in Other Languages

LETTER IN TURKISH	PRONUNCIATION IN ENGLISH	PRONUNCIATION PORTUGUESE
A a	as a in car	como a em amor
 â	as ya in yap	como iá em papiá
B b	as b in ball	como b em bola
C c	as j in jungle	como j in jazz
Ç ç	as ch in church	como t in Tiago
D d	as d in day	como d em dente
E e	as e in red	como e em elefante
F f	as f in fork	como f em faca
G g	as g in get	como g em gato
Ğ ğ	it extends the vowel before	extende a vogal anterior
H h	as h in house	como h em house (Inglês)
I ı	as io in nation	como â em âncora
İ i	as i in bit	como i em igreja
J j	as j in jambon	como j em jazz
K k	as k in kitchen	como c em casa
L l	as l in lion	como l em leão
M m	as m in mother	como m em mato
N n	as n in nation	como n em navio
O o	as o in Otawa	como o em olho
Ö ö	as eu in  peu ¨French word¨ as ö in öffnen ¨German word¨	como eu em peu ¨palavra francesa¨ como ö em öffnen ¨palavra alemã¨
P p	as p in Paris	como p em Paris
R r	as r in rent (double r)	como r em parlo (palavra italiana)
S s	as s in soap	como s em sopa
Ş ş	as sh in shop	como ch em chá
T t	as t in tall	como t em talco
U u	as u in put	como u em união
Ü ü	as u in super as u in cube as ü in über ¨German word¨	como u em (tu) ¨palavra francesa¨ como ü em über ¨palavra alemã¨
V v	as v in vacation	como v em vaca
Y y	as y in yes	como i em igreja
Z z	as z in zebra	como z em zebra

Important note:

In Turkish, every letter is equal to one sound. So this is one thing that makes pronunciation easier. If you know sounds of words you can read everything loudly.

For an example, T ü r k i y e word.

Let's look wich letter equals to which sound:

• T as in start,
• Ü as in cube,
• R as in far,
• K as in kilo,
• İ as in machine,
• Y as in you,
• E as in red.

If you get them together you can read the word. And remember that "Türkiye" word is written by 7 letter so you're going to use 7 sounds to read it.

And also an important thing, you can't create new sounds by combinating letters. For an example "sch" from German or "oux" from French.

Video - Turkish Alphabet Pronunciation by a Native Speaker

Nothing is better than listening to a real Turkish pronunce the different letters. Just Watch the videos below :

Turkish Online Virtual Keyboard