Manisa Turkish Website Home Page

Wikipedia say: "The best site for learning Turkish with detailed explanations." - October 2006

Manisa Turkish - (a free Turkish learning website) - The Turkish Language and its Grammar explained for English Speakers. This website does not pretend to be a course in Turkish, but rather it explains and answers some of the difficulties that the learner of Turkish may encounter along their learning curve..

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About The Author

I went to Turkey in the late seventies to work for a couple of years on a contract. In those days Turkey was going through social-economic crises and an amount of anarchy was rife. People were being shot in the cafes and the streets (sometimes old scores were being settled), and many differing factions were scrambling for power. It was in this scenario then that I was working as a Professional Chartered Engineer. In fact daily life became so bad since electricity and water supplies were regularly cut, and petrol was scarce and rationed. However the army again took a hand and they took power under General Kenan Evren in an overnight coup and formed a Government, introducing martial law and curfews and separating the warring factions.

The Whys and Wherefores...

I was born in the middle thirties and went through the Second World War and its privations and maybe this experience helped me with the conditions which were prevailing in Turkey during my stay there.
While I was working in Turkey in a factory in Izmir and later in Manisa, I made a conscious decision to try to learn the language - I am not a linguist but I know that one can get a long way with a very basic vocabulary of about fifty words and absolutely no grammar in any language.

About Learning Turkish

How does one learn Turkish? - a fiendish grammar, an outlandish vocabulary and a strange (to us) construction. Per chance I met an old Turkish man whose English was excellent. He had been a pilot with THY (Turkish Airlines) and in my early days I asked him the question - "How can I learn Turkish...?"
His answer was simple - "Read and read and read some more everyday and take everything in - even the street signs."

So I did it his way..

Now let me say that at first (at least for six months) I had great difficulty in understanding and making myself understood. But I started reading (albeit with a dictionary). I bought some young children's school books and started as though I was at the age of five or six years.
In my spare time I walked around the town streets with a pocket dictionary and made myself translate the signs and advertisements which were to be found.
Everybody has their own way of learning a language and I extended my reading and started going to the cinema - not that I could understand very much. Gradually I assimilated more knowledge and I kept on reading, and my Turkish became more comfortable.

What Happened Next

To cut a long story short, I made and still have many friends in Turkey with whom I can converse easily in their own language. And after I returned in England and retired I became part-time lecturer in Turkish at my local Technical College.
I had Turkish satellite television fitted in England which kept my ear in. I still read, and it's now full blown novels, and I get a Turkish newspaper whenever I can.
I have since (in 2005) come to live in New Zealand, so no satellite television any more, but I can find the occasional Turkish Kebab shop where I can have a conversation, and I still read some Turkish everyday.

About Manisa Turkish

How to learn Turkish with explanations for English Speakers. Sounds of Turkish, Street Turkish and advice for visiting Turkey.
The Turkish Language explained for English speakers. Containing a few exercises and sound files for pronunciation examples.
This website does not pretend to be a Course in Turkish but it explains and answers some of the difficulties that the learner of Turkish may encounter along their way..
All I can hope is that for those who are interested in the why and wherefore of Turkish then they may find amongst these pages the key to their particular problem - I had many myself on the learning curve.
The way I have understood may not be the accepted way for the grammarians and linguists. However if it helps anybody to understand then I am happy. Good Luck.

A Nutshell Overview Turkish

• In Turkish words are changed by fixing other words on to them. These other little important words show motion towards, location and motion from..
• These added words change their spelling according to set rules and they must follow the same vowel pattern (Vowel Harmony) as the word they are being affixed to - sometimes they also have a consonant change for ease of pronunciation.
• Thus little words (suffixes) added to the stem of a verb may indicate its positive or negative form. Further suffixes are added for tense and person.
• Further meaning to verbs such as - "may, might, can, can't" are also supplied by an add-on to the original verb, thus producing a new word.
• Nouns are also suffixed with possessor and the motion or location words are then added.
  There is no word for "the" (the Definite Article) and also there is no gender forms (no "le" or "la" as in French).
• Describing words (Adjectives) precede their noun as in English and always remain in their basic form - no gender thus no agreement...
• The sentence form is SOV - Subject, Object, Verb.

FAQ's about Turkish

About Turkish and Turkey

Extinct: no
Family: Altaic
Branch: Turkik
Continent: Asia
Country: Turkey
Region: Spoken throughout Turkey as first or second language.
Also spoken in 35 other countries including Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, El Salvador, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Honduras, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Netherlands, Romania, Russia (Asia), Serbia and Montenegro, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, USA, Uzbekistan.
Turkish Native Population: 74,887,733 in Turkey (2008).
Population total all countries: 80,625,794 (est.). Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Uzbekistan, Germany, Holland.
Countries Where Official: Turkey
Three Letter Code: TRK
Alternative Names: Türkçe, Türkisch, Anatolian
Some other Statistics:
* Full name: Republic of Turkey - (Türkiye Cumhuriyeti)
* Capital: Ankara
* Largest city: İstanbul
* Area: 779,452 sq km (300,948 sq miles)
* Major language: Turkish
* Major religion: Islam (but legally Turkey is a Secular State)
* Life expectancy:71 years (men), 74 years (women) - [Source: Index Mundi - 2009]
* Monetary unit: Turkish Lira - (Türk Lirası - TL)
Main exports:
* Clothing and textiles, fruit and vegetables, iron and steel, motor vehicles and machinery, fuels and oils
* GNI per capita: US $9,340 (World Bank, 2008)
* Internet domain: .tr
* International dialling code: +90

Turkish Province Codes

Turkish Children Learn Their Mother Tongue Earliest

A research conducted worldwide has established that Turkish children are the fastest at learning their native language. The results were released at the International Association for the Study of Child Language's 10th congress in Berlin, Germany, where it was indicated that Turkish children could speak their native language by the age of 2-3 years in a grammatically correct manner.
Linguistics Professor Klann Delius noted that The Turkish Language was easy to learn. "Suffixes in Turkish that determine person and tense are regular. Using them is like arranging Lego pieces."
According to the research, it takes 12 years for Arab speaking children, and 4-5 years for German children to acquire the grammatical mastery in their mother tongue. The congress held in Berlin is attended by about 800 linguists from around the world.

About Manisa City

The capital of Manisa province, located about 30 km (about 20 mi) northeast of Izmir, the major Turkish port on the Aegean Sea. The city is situated on the northern slopes of Mount Manisa (Mount Sipylus), by the meandering Gediz River (called the Hermus River in ancient times). Due to its location on the edge of the fertile Manisa plain, agricultural produce has traditionally been the major means of support in the region. The recent development of electronics industries has diversified the city's economy. Manisa has both highway and railway connections to Izmir.
The Archeological and Ethno graphical Museums (founded in 1935) contain finds and cultural artifacts from the city and its environs. Celâl Bayar University (1992), named after the third president of Turkey, is the only higher education institution in Manisa. The current settlement stands on the ancient city of Magnesia. Found 6 km (4 mi) east of Manisa, a 13th-century BC rock carving of Cybele, the ancient Mother of the Gods, is considered evidence of Phrygian or Hittite presence in the area. Held by Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Crusaders, and then Seljuk Turks, Manisa was captured by Ottomans in AD 1405.
Manisa became a provincial capital in the newly established Republic of Turkey in 1923. Population (2008) 332,346.

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Some Accolades for us..

Please take time to read some of the welcome comments made about our website in the link below. We always welcome suggestions, corrections and criticism and will always act upon them. For anyone who cannot realize a particular Turkish Grammar point themselves - then if you email us directly we will do our best to explain your difficulty. However we do not undertake translation of letters, poems or songs etc. Sorry, but having been inundated with these very time consuming requests, we have had to discontinue this service.

See the Accolades for Manisa Turkish

And - How one of our Turkish friends sees us..

Bir site keşfettim - Manisa Turkish. Bu alanda gördüğüm en iyi site. Tam ihtiyaca göre hazırlanmış, güzelce dizayn edilmiş, karmaşa ve işe yaramayan gramerden kasten kaçınılmış.
Belki bol alıştırma ile güçlendirilebilirdi belki ama hâlâ pek çok piyasada arzı endam eden pahalı kitaptan daha iyi.
Türkçe öğrenmek isteyen arkadaşlarınız varsa bedava hizmet veren bu siteden haberdar etmekte fayda var. Ben dünden beri keyifle inceliyorum.
- Güzel Dilimiz: TÜRKÇE FORUMU - 26 Mart 2008.