When we moved to Turkey eight years ago I had the advantage of prior study in several languages, and actually achieved competence in a few, so I'm particularly interested in how people learn languages. However, I've been immersed in Turkish long enough to occasionally forget how amazing it is that for native speakers this language actually sounds normal. Then I get a jolt like this flier my wife brought home a few days ago.
Turkish grammar is fascinating for its adherence nearly without exception to its many rules, but since word formation and grammar are almost complete the opposite of English (although occasionally it's more like inside out), you have to learn a lot before you can use even a little. In the case of this document, for example, an adjective accumulates enough suffixes to change it into a verb, then a participle, and then into a full fledged dependent clause.
The flier is an advert for a home decor store, and the first sentence reads, Are you one of those whose home we have perfected, (or) are you one of those whose home we have not perfected?
Knowing that much, can you figure out how the second clause was made negative?
Wacky. Is it the "m+e" in the middle of mukemm(+23 more characters)?
Tom how about adding a tiny sound clip with pronunciation? I can't wrap my mouth around any of these words! With all the modifiers and the umlaut(?) they look sort of like German...
Posted by: Jane Krauss | July 10, 2007 at 03:48 PM
Well done Jane! And great idea about the sound clip. That will be in my next post.
Posted by: Tom | July 13, 2007 at 04:25 AM