Noun modifiers in English and Turkish

1. [Metni yazın]
2015
NOUN MODIFIERS
in
ENGLISH
and
TURKISH
Yüksel Göknel
ygoknel@outlook.com

2. NOUN MODIFIERS IN ENGLISH AND TURKISH
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3. NOUN MODIFIERS IN ENGLISH AND TURKISH
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MODIFIERS IN ENGLISH
Modifiers in Turkish and English are of two kinds. Some modifiers are
groups of words that give information about nouns by answering the
question “which”; the other modifiers are groups of words that answer
the questions when, where, how or why an action takes place.
The modifiers that modify and define nouns produce nominal
phrases that can be used as subjects, objects, objects of pre-
positions, or subject complements in sentences. On the other
hand, adverbs, adverbial phrases and clauses are additional op-
tional elements that give optional information about verbs. Therefore,
although these two are called modifiers, the functions of these modi-
fiers in the sentence producing system are quite different.
In the following article the modifiers that modify nouns are given in
detail. The modifiers that modify verbs are given in another article
under the title “adverbs, adverbials and adverb clauses”.
NOUN MODIFIERS IN ENGLISH
1. Some modifiers are used before nouns in English:
Articles: a boy, an engineer, the president
Adjectives 1: my father, your aim, his wife, her decision. its tail,
our project, your horses, their help, this boy, these children,
those books, some birds, all girls, Jack’s father, my mother’s car
No articles “a, an, the” are used before the adjectives given
above, such as: (a my book), (the your horses) because “my”,
“your”, “his” … adjectives have defining functions.
The “a, an, the” articles can be used before descriptive adjec-
tives, and they furnish nouns with the meaning of “any”:
Adjectives 2: a beautiful lady, an ugly duck, a miserable man, an
empty room, a broken chair, a naughty child, an old man, a
reasonable decision.
If specific nouns are described, the article “the” can be used be-
fore adjectives, such as: the beautiful lady, the naughty children,
the lazy boys, the sleepy dog, the careless students, the historic
monuments. This article furnishes nouns with definite concepts.

4. NOUN MODIFIERS IN ENGLISH AND TURKISH
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A noun can modify another noun by coming immediately before
it, such as: an office table, a door bell, a mountain road, a gold
bracelet, a leather bag, a plastic toy, an apple garden.
Present participles may modify nouns, such as: talk-ing parrots,
a smile-ing baby, roar-ing lions, sing-ing birds, rise-ing prices, a
bark-ing dog, a leak-ing pipe, twinkle-ing lights.
Past participles may modify nouns, such as: a broken chair,
forgotten memories, a lost child, a frightened dog, confused
students, a stolen necklace, a torn coat.
Demonstrative adjectives: this boy, that car, these questions,
those books.
2. Some modifiers are used after nouns:
Prepositional phrases: the boys in the garden, the houses by the
sea, the treasure under the floor, the postman at the door.
Some infinitives may function as modifiers in English, such as:
Jack was the first boy to leave the school.
You have a lot of things to learn.
We have a lot of problems to solve.
That was the last straw to break the camel’s back.
The purple underlined parts above are noun modifiers.
Adjective clauses: the boys who are playing in the garden, the
fish that the cat ate, the man whose car was stolen, the garden
where the children are playing.
The purple underlined parts above are adjective clauses that
modify nouns.
All the nouns together with their modifiers are nominal phrases
because they can be used as subjects, objects or objects of
prepositions in sentences.

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NOUN MODIFIERS IN TURKISH
All modifiers are used before nouns in Turkish except for the
modifiers that are used after pronouns and nouns.
Articles: Only the indefinite article “bir” is used before nouns in
Turkish:
bir çocuk “a boy”, bir araba “a car”, bir kadın “a woman”, bir
kedi “a cat”, bir elma “an apple”, bir portakal “an orange”.
In place of the definite article “the” of the English language, the [i, ı,
ü, u] allomorphs are attached to nouns following the vowel harmony
of the Turkish language when nouns or pronouns are used in the
object position when they are definite.
Nouns: kalem-i “the pencil”, adam-ı “the man”, göz-ü “the eye”,
okul-u “the school”, araba-/y/ı, “the car”, koku-/y/u “the smell”,
kavga-/y/ı “the fight”.
Pronouns: ben-i “me”, sen-i “you”, o-/n/u “him, her, it”, biz-i
“us”, siz-i “you”, onlar-ı “them”.
If proper nouns are used in the object position, they are also
suffixed by the [i, ı, ü, u] allomorphs when they are in the object
position in Turkish contrary to English where the proper nouns are
used without definite articles:
Ben dün Jack-i gördüm. I saw Jack yesterday. (Not “*the Jack”.)
If a definite noun is used as the subject of a sentence, it does not
need an “i, ı, ü, u” suffix attached to it.
Dün bahçede bir tavşan gördüm, ama tavşan kaçtı.
I saw a rabbit in the garden, but the rabbit ran away.
Similarly, when active sentences are transformed into passive
forms, the objects attached to [i, ı, ü, u] allomorphs become the
formal subjects (mentally they are the objects) of the passive
sentences carrying definite concepts without the [i, ı, ü, u] allomorphs
attached to them:

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Jack pencere-/y/i kır-dı. Jack broke the window. (Active)
Pencere kır-ıl-dı. The window was broken. (Passive)
Jack her zaman kapı-/y/ı carp-ar. Jack always slams the door.
Kapı her zaman carp-ıl-ır. The door is always slammed. (Passive)
Onlar hız-ı artır-dı-lar. They increased the speed. (Active)
Hız artır-ıl-dı. The speed was increased. (Passive)
Possessive pronouns:
Using possessive pronouns in Turkish is quite different from using
English possessive pronouns. For instance, if someone says “my”,
no one can understand anything because there is something lacking
in this utterance. This lacking element is the noun that should follow
the possessive pronoun, such as:
my book, your mother, her makeup, his courage, its tail, our
friends, your daughter, our problem, their curiosity.
If one literally translates the expressions above into Turkish, the fol-
lowing ungrammatical Turkish expressions are produced:
*ben-im kitap, *sen-in anne, *o-/n/un makyaj, *o-/n/un cesaret,
*biz-im sorun.
In Turkish, the possessive allomorphs that have the same mean-
ings as the possessive pronouns should be attached to the nouns
that they modify. Therefore, the (ben-im, sen-in, o-/n/un) pronouns
are generally ignored because the “im, ım, üm, um, em, am” allo-
morphs are enough to express them, such as:
defter-im (def*te*rim) my notebook
kitap-ım (ki*ta*bım) my book
yüz-üm (yü*züm) my face
kol-um (ko*lum) my arm
anne-em (an*nem) my mother
baba-am (ba*bam) my father
All the [im, ım, üm, um, em, am] allomorphs above mean “ben-im” “my”

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defter-in (def*te*rin) your notebook
kitap-ın (ki*ta*bın) your book
yüz-ün (yü*zün) your face
kol-un (ko*lun) your arm
anne-en (an*nen) your mother
baba-an (ba*ban) your father
All the [in, ın, ün, un, en, an] allomorphs above mean “sen-in” “your”
defter-i (def*te*ri) his notebook
kitap-ı (ki*ta*bı) his book
yüz-ü (yü*zü) his face
kol-u (ko*lu) his arm
anne-/s/i (an*ne*si) his mother
baba-/s/ı (ba*ba*sı) his father
All the [i, ı, ü, u, /s/i, /s/ı] allomorphs above mean “o-/n/un” “his, her, its”
defter-im-iz (def*te*ri*miz) our notebook
kitap-ım-ız (ki*ta*bı*mız) our book
yüz-üm-üz (yü*zü*müz) our face
kol-um-uz (ko*lu*muz) our arm
anne-em-iz (an*ne*miz) our mother
baba-am-ız (ba*ba*mız) our father
All the [im-iz, ım-ız, üm-üz, um-uz, em-iz, am-ız] allomorphs above
mean “biz-im” “our”.
defter-in-iz (def*te*ri*niz) your notebook
kitap-ın-ız (ki*ta*bı*nız) your book
yüz-ün-üz (yü*zü*nüz) your face
kol-un-uz (ko*lu*nuz) your arm
anne-en-iz (an*ne*niz) your mother
baba-an-ız ba*ba*nız) your father

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All the [in-iz, ın-ız, ün-üz, un-uz, en-iz, an-ız] allomorphs above mean
“siz-in” “your”.
defter-ler-i (def*ter*le*ri) their notebooks
kitap-lar-ı (ki*tap*la*rı) their books
yüz-ler-i (yüz*le*ri) their faces
kol-lar-ı (kol*la*rı) their arms
anne-e-/s/i (an*ne*si) their mother
baba-a-/s/ı (ba*ba*sı) their father
All the [i, ı, ü, u, /s/i, /s/ı] allomorphs mean “onlar-ın” “their”
As the possessive allomorphs attached to the nouns above are
enough to express the possessive pronouns in brackets, these
possessive pronouns can be ignored unless they are intentionally
stressed because “defter-im” means “ben-im defter-im” and “ev-
im-iz” means “biz-im ev-im-iz”.
All the possessive pronouns above together with the nouns that
they modify are noun compounds in Turkish. All the other noun
compounds that contain proper or common possessive nouns follow
the third person “possessive pronoun + noun-possessive allomorph”
prototype to constitute noun compounds in Turkish:
The noun compounds “o-/n/un okul-u” and “Jack-in okul-u” are
structurally the same noun compounds like “his school” and “Jack’s
school”. All the other noun compounds use the same template to
produce noun compounds in Turkish:
“o-/n/un araba-/s/ı”, “ahmet-in araba-/s/ı”, “oda-/n/ın kapı-/s/ı”,
“Jack-in konu-/y/u anla-ma-/s/ı”, “çalış-ma-/n/ın bit-me-/s/i”, “hır-
sız-ın kaç-ma-/s/ı”. The black underlined words are infinitives.
As it is seen in the examples above, the infinitives can also be used
in noun compounds. There are four kinds of infinitives in Turkish:
1. The [mek, mak] allomorphs that are attached to verb roots, verb
stems and verb frames:
(verb root-[mek, mak]): gör-mek, konuş-mak, yürü-mek, ağla-
mak, bekle-mek, elle-mek, başla-mak, karala-mak, ötele-mek.

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(verb stem-[mek, mak]): görün-mek, görül-mek, kaçış-mak,
bulun-mak, bitiril-mek, bekleş-mek, sordur-mak, boyat-mak.
The [mek, mak] infinitives are not used in noun compounds.
2. The [me, ma] allomorphs that are attached to verb roots, stems
or frames:
gör-me, konuş-ma, yürü-me, ağla-ma, bekle-me, başla-ma, ötele-
me, görül-me, bulun-ma, sözleş-me, kaçış-ma, bakış-ma, dön-
me, anlaş-ma.
The infinitives with [me, ma] allomorphs are widely used to produce
noun compounds that do not modify nouns. They can be used by
themselves in sentences as subjects, objects, or objects of prepo-
sitions.
Mary-/n/in ağla-ma-/s/ı hepimiz-i üz-dü. (“Üz” is an action verb.)
noun compound def object verb
subject predicate
Mary’s cry-ing made all of us sorry. (“Sorry” is an adjective.)
(Ben) Jack-in gel-me-/s/i-/n/i bekle-i.yor-um. (bek*li*yo*rum)
subj (noun compound) def object verb
predicate
I am waiting for Jack to come.
3. The [dik, dık, dük, duk, tik, tık, tük, tuk] infinitive allomorphs that
are attached to verbs are used in noun compounds that include
question words. They are not modifiers that modify nouns:
(Ben) Jack-in ne iste-dik-i-/n/i bil-me-i.yor-um.
subj (noun compound) def obj verb
predicate
I don’t know what Jack wants. (“What Jack wants” is a noun clause object.)
(Ben) Jack-in nere-/y/e, nasıl ve niçin git-tik-i-/n/i bil-me-i.yor-um.
subj (nun compound) definite object verb
predicate
I don’t know where, how and why Jack went.
4. The [iş, ış, üş, uş] allomorphs attached to verbs that produce noun
compounds do not modify nouns. They are used as subjects or ob-
jects in sentences:

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O/n/un gel-iş-i muhteşem ol-a.cak. My come-ing will be spectacular.
noun compound subj comp verb subject verb subj comp
subject predicate predicate
(Ben) güneş-in doğ-uş-u-/n/u bekle-i.yor-um.
subj (noun comp) definite obj verb
I am waiting for the sun to rise.
5. The noun compounds having the [dik, dık, dük, duk, tik, tık, tük,
tuk] allomorphs attached to the verbs in the second parts of the com-
pounds are also used to modify nouns:
O/n/un çalış-tık-ı şirket çok kalabalık.
(noun comp) modifier noun subject complement
subject predicate
The company where he works is very crowded.
(Sen) o/n/un çalış-tık-ı şirket-i bil-i.yor mu-sun?
subj (noun compound) def obj verb
predicate
Do you know the company where he works?
6. If the allomorphs [de.ki, da.ki] are attached to nouns, they pro-
duce modifiers that modify the following nouns in sentences:
bahçe-de.ki kedi “the cat in the garden”
modifier noun noun modifier
nominal phrase nominal phrase
(ben-im) köpek-im bahçe-de.ki kedi-/y/i kovala-dı.
noun compound nominal phrase |
subject definite object verb
predicate
My dog chased the cat in the garden.
subject | | prepositional phrase
verb object modifier
predicate
Kapı-/n/ın arka-sı/n/-da.ki oyuncak-lar kız-ım-ın.
modifier noun subject complement
(nominal phrase) subject predicate
Although Turkish modifiers are always used before nouns, English modifiers
are used either before or after nouns that they modify:

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1. The modifiers that are used before the nouns that they modify in
English and Turkish:
Present participles:
fly-ing birds → Uç-an kuşlar, talk-ing parrots → konuş-an papağanlar,
shin-ing lights → ışılda-/y/an ışıklar, smil-ing baby → gülümse-/y/en
bebek, rise-ing prices → yüsel-en fiyatlar, fall-ing leaves → düş-en
yapraklar, roar-ing lions → kükre-/y/en arslanlar, a leak-ing pipe.
Past participles:
A broken chair → kır-ık sandalye, forgotten memories → unutul-muş
hatıralar, a torn jacket → yırt-ık ceket, a lost child → kayıp çocuk.
Descriptive adjectives:
A beautiful scenery → güzel bir manzara, responsible people →
sorumlu kişiler, a dangerous adventure → tehlikeli bir macera.
In the following Turkish sentences the modifiers come before nouns,
but in the English sentences they come after nouns:
Jack okul-dan çık-an ilk çocuk-tu. (“Çık-an” is an adjective.)
Jack was the first boy to leave the school. (“To leave” is an adjective.)
(The infinitive modifies the noun “boy”, so it is an adjective.)
Yürü-/y/e.cek uzun bir yol-um.uz var. (“Yürü-/y/e.cek” is an adjective.)
We have a long way to walk. (“To walk” is an adjective.)
Öğren-e.cek çok şey-in.iz var. (“Öğren-e.cek” is an adjective.)
You have a lot of things to learn. (“To learn” is an adjective.)
Bitir-e.cek bir iş-im var. (“Bitir-e.cek” is an adjective.)
I have a work to finish. (“To finish” is an adjective.)
The noun compounds in Turkish are of three kinds.
1. Definite noun compounds:
All the noun compounds above having possessive pronouns or pos-
sessive nouns are nominal phrases. For instance:
ben-im okul-um (be*nim / o*ku*lum) my school
onlar-ın ev-i (on*la*rın / e*vi) their house

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o-/n/un bahçe-/s/i (o*nun / bah*çe*si) his garden
bahçe-/n/in ağaç-lar-ı (bah*çe*nin / a*ğaç*la*rı) the trees of the garden
oda-/n/ın kapı-/s/ı (o*da*nın / ka*pı*sı) the door of the room
fiyat-lar-ın art-ma-/s/ı (fi*yat*la*rın / art*ma*sı) the increase-ing of the prices
kuş-lar-ın öt-me-/s/i (kuş*la*rın / öt*me*si) the sing-ing of the birds
Some examples of the definite noun compounds:
o-/n/un kapı-/s/ı (o*nun / ka*pı*sı) (its door); oda-/n/ın kapı-/s/ı
(o*da*nın / ka*pı*sı) (the door of the room); o-/n/un yakıt-ı (o*nun /
ya*kı*tı) (its fuel); araba-/n/ın yakıt-ı (a*ra*ba*nın / ya*kı*tı) (the fuel
of the car); okul-un otobüs-ü (o*ku*lun / o*to*bü*sü) (the bus of
the school); bahçe-/n/in kapı-/s/ı (bah*çe*nin / ka*pı*sı) (the gate of
the garden); Kim-in tarla-/s/ı? (ki*min↝ / tar*la*sı↝) çiftçi-/n/in
tarla-/s/ı (çift*çi*nin / tar*la*sı) (the farm of the farmer); Nere-/n/in
halı-/s/ı? (ne↝re*nin / ha*lı*sı↝); oda-/n/ın halı-/s/ı (o*da*nın /
ha*lı*sı) (the carpet of the room); Kim-in karı-/s/ı? (ki*min↝ /
ka*rı*sı↝); Jack’in karı-/s/ı. (ja*kin / ka*rı*sı) (Jack’s wife); yürü-
me-/n/in yarar-ı (yü*rü*me*nin / ya*ra:*rı) (the benefit of walk-ing);
Ne-/y/in renk-i? (ne*yin↝ / ren*gi↝) şarap-ın renk-i (şa*ra*bın /
ren*gi) (the color of the wine); çiçek-in güzellik-i (çi*çe*ğin /
gü*zel*li*ği) (the beauty of the flower)
2. Indefinite noun compounds:
The following are examples of the indefinite noun compounds:
Ne çanta-/s/ı? (ne↝ / çan*ta*sı↝); Okul çanta-/s/ı (o*kul / çan*ta*sı)
(school bag); Ne soru-lar-ı? (ne↝ / so*ru*la*rı↝); Sınav soru-lar-ı
(sı*nav / so*ru*la*rı) (examination questions); öğrenci kavga-/s/ı
(öğ*ren*ci / kav*ga*sı) (student fight); otomobil yarış-ı (o*to*mo*bil /
ya*rı*şı) (car race); insan hak-lar-ı (in*san / hak*la*rı) (human rights);
Ne reçel-i? elma reçel-i (el*ma / re*çe*li) (apple jam); Ne kaza-s/ı?
(ne↝ / ka*za:*sı↝); araba kaza-/s/ı (a*ra*ba / ka*za:*sı) (car
accident); kalem kutu-/s/u (ka*lem / ku*tu*su) (pencil box); kış
bahçe-/s/i (kış / bah*çe*si) (winter garden); işsizlik sorun-u (iş*siz*lik
/ so*ru*nu) (unemployment problem); yaz eğlence-/s/i (yaz /
eğ*len*ce*si) (summer entertainment); güneş gözlük-ler-i (gü*neş /
göz*lük*le*ri) (sunglasses); patates salata-/s/ı (pa*ta*tes / sa*la*ta*sı)

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(potato salad); hava kirlilik-i (ha*va / kir*li*li*ği) (air pollution); baş
ağrı-/s/ı (ba*şağ*rı*sı) (headache).
3. Noun compounds without personal suffixes.
The nouns used without personal allomorphs in the first parts of these
noun compounds function as definers. For instance:
Nasıl kutu? Tahta kutu (tah*ta / ku*tu) (wooden box); Nasıl bilezik?
Altın bilezik (al*tın / bi*le*zik) (golden bracelet); porselen fincan
(por*se*len / fin*can) (china cup); demir kapı (de*mir / ka*pı) (iron
door); taş bina (taş / bi*na:) (stone building); plastik oyuncak
(plas*tik / o*yun*cak) (plastic toy); bakır tel (ba*kır / tel) (copper
wire); mermer heykel (mer*mer / hey*kel) (marble statue); kız
arkadaş (kı*zar*ka*daş) (girl friend); erkek arkadaş (er*ke*kar*-
ka*daş) (boy friend); gümüş para (gü*müş / pa*ra) (silver coin); tah-
ta köprü (tah*ta / köp*rü) (wooden bridge); Beyaz Saray (be*yaz /
sa*ray) (The White House).
English adjective clauses and Turkish adjective phrases.
There are adjective phrases in Turkish in place of the adjective
clauses of the English language. Turkish adjective phrases (modi-
fiers) come before nouns that they modify contrary to the English
adjective clauses (modifiers) that follow nouns.
The mental foundation of English adjective clauses and Turkish
adjective phrases seem to be English and Turkish simple sentences.
In other words, there lie simple sentences under all English adjective
clauses and Turkish adjective phrases. First let us see how English
adjective clauses are produced from an English simple sentence.
There are three nouns in the following example sentence:
The girls were peeling potatoes in the kitchen.
1 2 3
If one wants to modify the first noun “the girls”, he asks himself
“Which girls?”, and transforms the rest of the sentence into an
adjective clause to modify “the girls”: “the girls who were peeling
potatoes in the kitchen”

14. NOUN MODIFIERS IN ENGLISH AND TURKISH
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If he wants to modify the second noun “potatoes”, he asks “Which
potatoes?”, and transforms the rest of the sentence into an adjective
clause to modify the potatoes: “the potatoes which the girls were
peeling in the kitchen”.
If he wants to modify the third noun “kitchen”, he asks himself
“Which kitchen?”, and transforms the rest of the sentence into an
adjective clause to modify the “kitchen”: “the kitchen where the
girls were peeling potatoes”
All the adjective clauses following the nouns above are nominal
phrases that can be used in the basic mental “subject + verb +
object” template as subjects, objects or objects of prepositions.
The girls who were peeling potatoes in the kitchen are my daughters.
subject verb subj complement
I saw the girls who were peeling potatoes in the kitchen.
subj verb (nominal phrase) object
predicate
I am not interested in the girls who were peeling potatoes in the kitchen.
subj verb subj comp prep (nominal phrase) object of the preposition “in”
predicate
The potatoes which the girls were peeling in the kitchen were of good quality.
nominal phrase verb subj complement
subject predicate
I want to fry the potatoes which the girls were peeling in the kitchen.
subj verb object (nominal phrase) object of “fry”
predicate
You saw the kitchen where the girls were peeling potatoes.
subj verb object
Someone stole Jack’s car. ↻ Jack, whose car someone stole,
Jack, whose car someone stole, is very sorry.
subj nonrestrictive adjective clause verb subj comp
predicate
Transforming simple sentences into adjective or noun clauses is a
learned activity of the logic. Therefore, the transformational rules of a
languages change from language to language. Before producing an
adjective or a noun clause, someone should already have a simple
sentence in his mind. He chooses a noun in the simple sentence in

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his mind to modify, and transforms the rest of the sentence into a mo-
difier to modify it. This learned language activity is completely logical.
Turkish adjective phrases:
The Turkish equivalents of the English adjective clauses above are
the Turkish adjective phrases (modifiers) below:
Kızlar mutfak-ta patates soy-u.yor-du.
1 2 3 verb
If one wants to modify the first noun (the subject), he asks himself
“Hangi kızlar?” “Which girls?”, and transforms the sentence into a
modifier so that he can use it in the basic “subject + object + verb”
Turkish mental template. In order to produce a modifier, he attaches
one of the [en, an] allomorphs following the vowel rules to a verb
root, stem or a frame to produce a modifier, such as:
mutfak-ta patates soy-an kız-lar
modifier noun
If he wants to modify the second noun “mutfak”, he asks himself
“Hangi mutfak?” “Which kitchen?”, and transforms the sentence into a
modifier so that he can use it in the “subject + object + verb” Turkish
mental basic sentence template. To produce this modifier, a noun
compound having one of the [dik, dık, dük, duk, tik, tık, tük, tuk]
allomorphs should be attached to the infinitive parts of the noun
compounds:
kızlar-ın patates soy-duk-u mutfak
(noun compound) modifier noun
If someone wants to modify the noun “patatesler”, he asks himself
“Hangi patatesler?” “Which potatoes?”, and he uses the same noun
compound above having the [dik, dık, dük, duk, tik, tık, tük, tuk]
allomorphs attached to the infinitive parts of the noun compound:
kız-lar-ın mutfak-ta soy-duk-u patatesler
(noun compound) modifier noun
All the modifiers together with the nouns above are nominal phrases
that can be used as subjects, objects, or objects of prepositions that
can be used in the “subject + object + verb” Turkish mental template:

16. NOUN MODIFIERS IN ENGLISH AND TURKISH
16
Mutfak-ta patates soy-an kızlar ben-im kızlar-ım.
modifier noun subject complement
(nominal phrase) subject predicate
The girls who are peeling potatoes in the kitchen are my daughters.
The symbols that are used in the examples above are as follows:
1. The single underlined consonants detach from their syllables and
attach to the vowels following them in speech: “gel-iş-i” (ge*li*şi)
2. The black vowels drop, and the single underlined consonants
coming before them detach from their syllables and attach to the vow-
els coming after the dropped vowels: bil-me-i.yor-um (bil*mi*yo*rum).
3. The pronouns in brackets “( )” are optional. They are not used un-
less they are intentionally stressed because the personal allomorphs
attached to the main verbs that carry the same meanings as the pro-
nouns are enough to express the pronouns.
4. The sentences in brackets “( )” show the speech utterance of the
words whose syllables are separated by “*” star symbols. The rising
“↝” arrows used after some syllables indicate that the syllables have
a rising intonation as if asking a question.
5. Three kinds of letters are used in the speech parts in brackets: The
syllables having weak stresses are written in “normal” letters; the
syllables that have secondary stresses are written in “italics”, and the
primarily stressed syllables are written in “bold” types.
6. The /y/, /n/, /s/ and /ş/ consonants are meaningless glides that are
used between vowels to help the voice pass from one vowel to the
following one smoothly and harmoniously.
8. The colors indicating the functions of the words in sentences:
1. Subjects and subject allomorphs are blue.
2. Verbs are red.
3. Objects are black.
4. Adverbs, adverbials, adverbial phrases, adverbial clauses and
prepositions or postpositions are green.
5. Subject complements are brown.
6. Ajectives and noun modifiers are purple.