1.5 Vowel Harmony

One very interesting feature of Turkmen is that all vowels can be divided into two groups, the front vowels (inçe çekimli sesler) and the back vowels (ÿogyn çekimli sesler). Front vowels are pronounced higher in the throat and are more nasal, while back vowels are pronounced lower in the throat and are more guttural. The front vowels are ä, e, i, ö, and ü. The back vowels are a, y, o, and u. The "harmony" lies in the fact that all Turkmen words of Turkic origin are pronounced either entirely with front vowels, like kädi (pumpkin) or köwü∫ (shoes), or with back vowels, like doganlyk (brotherhood) or mugallym (teacher). Grammatical and verb suffixes also follow vowel harmony, being divided into two groups for front-vowel words and back-vowel words. For example, the front-vowel plural suffix -ler would be added to kädi to form the word for "pumpkins," whereas the back-vowel plural suffix -lar would be added to mugallym to produce "teachers." In short, front vowels go with front vowels and back vowels with back. Subsequent suffix appendices will more completely explain applications of this rule.

Turkmen has many Russian words, such as telewizor (television) and radio (radio), that have simply been incorporated into the language. These are spelled exactly according to the original Russian and often have both front and back vowels within one word. Such is true for the numerous Turkmen words of Persian and Arabic origin, such as kitap (book), dükan (shop), and serdar (leader). In these cases, consistent with the general rule for vowel harmony in Turkmen, the final vowel of the word determines the vowel harmony for suffixation.

Verbs in Turkmen adhere consistently to vowel harmony. All verbs belong to one of two groups determined by their infinitive forms: those ending in -mak, and those ending in -mek. The suffixes for all -mak verbs have only back vowels, whereas only front vowels will be found in the suffixes of -mek verbs. Examples of this will follow in the explanations of verb tenses.

1.6 Long and Short Vowels

Another interesting feature of Turkmen is the use of long and short vowels. Short vowels are like those in English, like the a in "bar." Long vowels simply require pronouncing short vowels for the duration of two vowels. Often this difference in duration is all that distinguishes the meanings of two words, as in the pairs below:

SHORT LONG

at horse at name

gyz get excited! (imperative) gyz girl

bil know! (imperative) bil waist

ot grass ot fire

öç extinguish! (imperative) öç revenge

gurt curd, dry cheese gurt wolf, worm

dü∫ come down! (imperative) düÿ∫ dream

1.7 Vocal Transformations

Certain consonat combinations are rendered differently in spoken Turkmen than their written forms would indicate. For example, the nd of mende (on my person) is pronounced "nn" when spoken (menne). The following chart will illustrate these combinations and examples with the spoken transformations rendered in the new alphabet.

Written Spoken Written Spoken Translation_________________

n + d nn sende senne on your person

l + d ll aldym allym I took

z + d zz agyzda agyzza in the mouth

s + d ss bäsde∫ bäsde∫ rival

s + t ss üsti üssi top, surface

∫ + j ∫∫ go∫jak go∫∫ak will add

z + s ss ÿazsyn ÿassyn let him write

t + s ss gitse gisse if she goes

t + ç çç parahatçylyk parahaççylyk peace

ç + s ∫s açsa a∫sa if it opens

ç + l ∫l açlyk a∫lyk hunger, famine

ç + d ∫d geçdik ge∫dik we passed

ç + j ∫∫ içjek i∫∫ek will drink

g + b gw bagban bagwan gardener