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What's the Turkish alphabet like?

The Turkish alphabet has 29 letters. You may well have to spell out your name and perhaps your address in Turkish. Here is the alphabet and how to pronounce it

- right click and choose 'save target as'

What's significant about the Turkish alphabet?

• The more difficult sounds

  The Turkish alphabet has eight vowels: ÌýA, E, I, Ä°, O, Ö, U, Ãœ. The letters Q, W and X don't exist in the Turkish language and are only used for ‘borrowed’ foreign words.
  The pronunciation of Q is k, W is u/v and X is iks/eks, i.e. quantum = kuantum, Rwanda = Ruanda, taxi = taksi.

  The letters a, i, and u are sometimes written with a circumflex - Ìýâ, î, û – which can completely change the whole meaning of the word , e.g. Ìýkar, snow, and Ìý°ìâ°ù, profit.

  The pronunciation of the vowels ı, ö and ü, along with the consonants ç, ş and ğ, are the more difficult ones for English speakers. Here are some tips on how to pronounce these letters:
  Ìýı is similar to the e in open
  Ìýö is similar to the i in bird
  Ìýü is similar to the ew in flew and to the German umlaut ü, eg in über.
  Ìýç is similar to the ch in change
  ÌýÄŸ is similar to the k in Khan or khaki
  ÌýÅŸ is similar to the sh in shell

  In addition, the letters c, j, g are pronounced differently to the English c, j and g. Here are some examples:
  Ìýc is similar to the j in jump, jam
  Ìýj is a soft j, similar to the French je.
  Ìýg is pronounced as a hard g, as in garment, gold.

  Ìý

• The legacy of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

  Turkish was written in the Arabic alphabet for over a thousand years and Ottoman Turkish blended a great amount of Arabic and Persian vocabulary with Turkish words.

  The current 29-letter Turkish alphabet was the personal initiative of the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. It was one of the major revolutionary changes which came with Atatürk's reforms after the birth of the Turkish Republic in 1923.

  The transition to the Latin alphabet was formalised with a law passed on 1 November 1928, making the use of the new Turkish alphabet compulsory in all public communications and the education system, where it’s still mandatory today.

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• Email and website conventions

  When giving an email or website address the conventions are:
  Ìý@Ìýat
  Ìý.Ìýnokta, dot
  Ìý/Ìý²úö±ôü, slash
  Ìý-Ìýtire, dash
  Ìý_Ìýalt çizgi, underscore

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