Comparing Irish and Turkish – A Brief Language Comparison
When I first started learning Gaeilge I knew there were going to be many differences between Irish and Turkish! I had discovered Irish through my love of music and culture, and with the help of a global community and some online language tools, I have been able to make a lot of language progress from my home here in Istanbul (Iostanbúl i nGaeilge!).
For starters, Turkish and Irish are from different language families and their geographical locations are quite far apart. Turkish, as you likely know, is a Turkic language, while Irish is a Goidelic branch of the Celtic language family.
Starting out, I looked for common ground between Turkish and Irish, such as common words and patterns that would help me get started. Over time, I noticed that there were grammatical similarities between the two languages – not exactly the same, of course, but there were similarities. Let me show you some of the similarities and peculiarities between Irish and Turkish, and I will teach you some new vocabulary along the way. To help avoid confusion, I have italicised the Irish words and phrases, and I’ve also included some Turkish audio clips so you can hear what the language sounds like!
Merhaba – Dia duit – Hello.
Hoş geldin – Fáilte romhat – Welcome (singular).
Hoş geldiniz – Fáilte romhaibh – Welcome (plural).
Hoşça kal – Slán agat – Goodbye (said to person staying or remaining).
Hoşça kalın – Slán agaibh – Goodbye (said to more than one person staying or remaining).
Güle güle – Slán leat – Go smilingly (said to person leaving).
İyi günler – Bíodh lá deas agat. – Have a good day.
Turkish Greetings
Turkish is known for its vowel harmony, which means that the vowels within a word harmonise to be either front or back vowels. Irish does not feature vowel harmony as systematically as Turkish, but it does have rules about broad (leathan) and slender (caol) consonants, which are influenced by the vowels that surround them. This feature requires certain consonants to change form depending on the vowels that come before or after, creating a phonetic harmony that influences pronunciation and orthography.
The Turkish alphabet consists of Latin characters and is mostly phonetic. Each letter makes a single sound. Turkish has 8 vowels: ⟨a⟩, ⟨e⟩, ⟨ı⟩, ⟨i⟩, ⟨o⟩, ⟨ö⟩, ⟨u⟩, ⟨ü⟩. ı is the schwa (ə) sound in IPA notation, like in the word cycle (ˈsīkəl).
We can place Turkish vowels into two groups: a,ı,o,u and e,i,ö,ü. If the last vowel in the word is a, ı, o, or u, we use the a form. If the last vowel in the word is e, i, ö, or ü, we use the e form. Similarly In Irish, there is the important rule of ‘Caol le caol, leathan le leathan‘. In Irish, we group the vowels a, o and u (leathan – wide) and e,i (caol – narrow).
Turkish Vowels
In Irish, the verb usually comes first in a sentence, that is VSO (Verb-Subject-Object). The typical Turkish word order is SOV (Subject-Object-Verb), which means that the subject comes first, followed by an object, and then a verb, like in English. Also we attach a personal ending/suffix at the end of the sentence to the verb.
In Irish, we say ‘Tá mé ag ól tae.‘ – I am drinking tea.
In Turkish, that’s ‘Ben çay içiyorum’. İçiyorum literally means ‘drink I am’. –um is the suffix for me/I am.
Içiyor – Tá sé/sí ag ól. – He/she is drinking
Içiyorum. – Tá mé ag ól. – I am drinking.
Olaim becomes ‘içerim’ – the ‘im’ ending for the present tense is almost the same as in Irish!
Unlike Gaeilge, Turkish is not a gendered language. This means that there is no distinction between masculine, feminine, or even neuter nouns. If you are in a tea garden and you want to address the waiter, you add Mr or Miss after the profession. It will be ‘Garson Bey’ (literally ‘Waiter Man/Sir ‘) or ‘Garson Hanım’ (‘Waiter Woman/Miss’). ‘Garson’ on its own can be male or female waiter. Therefore, Turkish uses the context of a sentence to distinguish between male and female.
There is no síneadh fada (i.e. no lengthening of vowel sounds) in Turkish, apart from words taken from Arabic. However, we do have a special consonant that functions like a fada, by lengthening the preceding vowel: ğ. The ğ is not heard, but is lengthens the a sound (the vowel) before it: ‘ağaç’ is pronounced as ‘aaaç’. Another example is in the word ‘öğretmen’, meaning ‘teacher’, which sounds like ‘ööretmen’.
sokak – sráid – street
ev – teach – house
bayrak – brat – flag
Turkish breakfast – bricfeasta Turcach – Türk kahvaltısı
tea garden – gairdín tae – çay bahçesi
dil – teanga – language or tongue ,
kahve – caife – coffee
çay – tae – tea (çay is drank with special narrow tea glasses, and without milk).
There is a pub under the window. – Tá teach tábhairne faoin bhfuinneog. – Pub pencerenin altında.
Turkish Vocabulary
‘Kahve’ is coffee, but when we refer to it as Turkish coffee, we say ‘Türk Kahvesi’. This is because when two nouns come together, so we add a possessive suffix to the second noun.
Similarly, when there is a connection between two nouns in Irish, we use the genitive form, An Tuiseal Ginideach. With the words ‘mála‘ (bag) and ‘scoil‘ (school), we form the words ‘mála scoile‘ (school bag). In Turkish, school is ‘okul’ and bag is ‘çanta’, but school bag is ‘okul çantası’. Turkish coffee is served with water. Water is ‘su’ in Turkish (like sú meaning ‘juice’ in Irish). Orange juice in Turkish is ‘portakal suyu’.
In Irish language, you will see a letter added between two vowels. For example, ná hól (do not drink) places a h between the vowels á and ó. In Turkish, the word for drinking is ‘içme’. Do not drink is ‘içme + y + in’, which becomes ‘içmeyin’. The ‘y’ in Turkish is doing the same thing as the ‘h’ in Irish, sitting between two vowels.
Another example is how we say ‘pull the door’. The word for door (doras) is ‘kapı’. Because ‘kapı’ ends in a vowel, the phrase ‘pull the door’ becomes ‘kapıyı çekiniz’.
In Irish, adjectives come after a noun. However, in Turkish adjectives usually come before the noun, as in English.
In the example of ‘mavi’ (blue) + ‘deniz’ (sea), we get ‘mavi deniz’.
mavi – gorm – blue
deniz – farraige – sea
a blue sea – farraige ghorm – mavi deniz
kırmızı – dearg – red
lale – tiúilip – tulip
a red tulip – tiúilip dhearg – kırmızı lale
beyaz – bán – white
snow – sneachta – kar
white snow – sneachta bán – beyaz kar
pembe – bándearg – pink
kuş – éan – bird
a pink bird – éan bándearg – pembe kuş
Turkish Adjectives
The plural grammar/suffix exists in Turkish. See these examples when referring to books:
kitap – leabhar – book
kitaplar – leabhair – books
kitap+lar books (leathan le leathan)
When you are counting things in Turkish, the noun is always singular – just like in Irish!
two books – dhá leabhar – İki kitap
Unlike in Irish, when counting people or things, we still use the same set of numbers.
In Irish, we don’t say we have something – instead, we say that something is at me. ‘Tá carr agam’ literally means ‘A car is at me’. This comes from the preposition ‘ag‘ which means ‘at’. It’s the same in Turkish – the verb ‘to have’ doesn’t exist in the Turkish language!
Araba bende – Tá an carr agam. – I have the car (at me).
bende – agam – I have.
Irish does not have an indefinite article, so madra can mean ‘dog’ or ‘a dog’, depending on the context. It’s the same in Turkish – the words ‘a cat’ or ‘cat’ is the same, ‘kedi’.
Halının üzerinde bir kedi var. – Tá cat ar an gcairpéad. – There is a cat on the carpet.
I hope you found the comparison between Turkish and Irish interesting! From my weekly classes, I know that there are many people learning Irish worldwide, and they are not just English speakers. If you see me in a Comhrá session, you are very welcome to try some Turkish with me too! If you’re looking for a language role model (no pun intended), then why not check out this video of Istanbul-based model, Chloe Loughnan, who hails from Blackrock in Co. Cork! Here she is speaking excellent Turkish. In the video she mentions the ‘nazar’ (evil eye) and how she had the evil eye bead designed on her nails.
Just like in Irish, there are many seanfhocal in Turkish. Since deserts are a big part of our culture, let’s end on this one:
Tatlı yiyelim,tatlı konuşalım – Eat sweet, talk sweet!
Bígí páirteach!
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