Turkish has some long words

For no particular reason, I am learning some Turkish with the online computer language program Rosetta Stone. No particular reason, other than that we get a great deal through David's company to access lessons for 15 languages for a year at a time, and that I come into contact with some Turkish people here on a weekly basis and speak with them in German...and it would be cool to know some of their language. And I love learning languages.

For example, in Turkish, "Merhaba" is hello. Emphasis on the first syllable.

What I am currently finding amazing is that I am only on Unit 2 of Level 1, and they are making me pronounce 18-letter words!!! As in the sentence, "Siz öğretmenlerimsiniz." (I think this means "You are my teachers.") That seems a little over the top! The G with the breve on top sounds more like a Y. The O with an umlaut sounds quite like the same character in German, which is helpful.

I thought German had some long words, but Turkish is right up there, too.

Turkish also has some other creative new characters: 

ç (sounds like "ch")

ş (sounds like "sh")

Also, ı  - an i without the dot on top. Sounds like "uh".

Apparently it also has this one: İ

But I haven't met it yet, so I don't know what it does.

Fun! All due to the Tower of Babel...

Posted via email from K's Café