Turkish Word Stress

I. STRESS IN ROOTS

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I.I REGULAR ROOTS

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Most roots in Turkish (including all polysyllabic verbal roots and some loan words) are stressable on the final syllable:

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kadín (woman)

kalabalík (crowd)

cumhuriyét (republic)

hastá (ill)

kutú (box)

beklé (wait)

öğrén (learn)

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Where a particular root is stressable on a syllable other than the last, this is indicated in dictionary entries.

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• In vocative forms, i.e. forms of address, stress is on the penultimate syllable:

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Kádın! (Hey woman!)

Çocúklar! (Hey kids!)

Hüséyin! (Hüseyin!)

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• If a diminutive suffix (-CIK, 7.2.2.2, or its inflected form -CIğIm) is added to a form of address, the stress remains in its original position:

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Semrá’cığım (Semra darling!)

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I.II IRREGULAR ROOTS AND STEMS

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(i) Adverbs are mostly stressable on the first syllable:

şímdi (now)

bélki (perhaps)

yárın (tomorrow)

áncak (only, only just)

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Note that this rule does not apply to words which function primarily as adjectives but to those that are adverbs in their primary function. Thus in Bunu koláy yaptım ‘I did this easily’, the adjectival koláy ‘easy’ retains its regular stress position even though it functions as an adverb in this sentence.

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(ii) Many nouns of foreign origin (in particular, those which are borrowed from a language other than Arabic or Persian) do not conform to the stress pattern of native words, and are stressed on a syllable other than the final one:

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lokánta (Italian) - ‘restaurant’

bánka (Italian) - ‘bank’

iskémle (French) - ‘chair’

táksi (French) - ‘taxi’

lόbi (English) - ‘lobby’

fútbol (English) - ‘soccer’

péncere (Persian) - ‘window’

politíka (Greek) - ‘politics’

iskéle (Greek) - ‘quay’

satsúma (Japanese) - ‘satsuma’

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(iii) Place names have a non-final stress position:

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Tǘ́rkiye, Ánkara, Istánbul, Táksim, Adána, Ingiltére, Fránsa, Afríka

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Exceptions are place names ending in the suffix -istan, which are stressed on the last syllable:

Hindistán ‘India’

Gürcistán ‘Georgia’

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Some speakers place the stress in place names ending in -istan on the

penultimate syllable (e.g. Gürcístan).

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Note that the difference in stress is the only distinguishing factor between some place names and otherwise identical common nouns:

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mısír (maize)

Mísır (Egypt)

ordú (army)

Órdu (a city on the Black Sea coast of Turkey)

bebék (baby)

Bébek (a district in Istanbul)

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(iv) The following question words and those that contain the suffix -rA (see I.III.II (iii) below) are stressed on the first syllable:

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hángi (which)

háni (where, [informal])

násıl (how)

níçin (why)

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(v) Stems which have reduplicative prefixes and most of the stems containing loan prefixes are stressed on the prefix:

kápkara ‘pitch black’

ásosyal ‘antisocial’

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II. STRESS IN COMPOUNDS

Most noun compounds are stressed on (the stressable syllable of) the first element:

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búgün (bu ‘this’ + gün ‘day’) - ‘today’

báşbakan (baş ‘head’ + bakan ‘minister’) - 'prime minister’

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This is also true of -(s)I compounds, irrespective of whether the two roots are written together or separately:

sokák lambası - ‘street light’

telefόn rehberi - ‘telephone directory’

çáy bardağı - ‘tea glass’

dérs kitapları - ‘textbooks’

búzdolabı  - ‘refrigerator’ (lit. ‘ice cupboard’)

kasímpatı - ‘chrysanthemum’ (lit. ‘November aster’)

deréotu - ‘dill’ (lit. ‘stream weed’)

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However, there are exceptions, and some compounds are stressed on the final syllable, like regular stems:

• alışveríş (alíş ‘taking’+veríş ‘giving’) ‘shopping’

• bilgisayár (bilgí ‘knowledge’+sayár ‘[something] that counts’) ‘computer’

• kabakulák (kaba ‘coarse’, ‘puffy’+kulak ‘ear’) ‘mumps’

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In compounds consisting of two verb or a nominal and a verb, stress falls on (the stressable syllable of) the first word:

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anlamís ol- ‘have understood’

bitiríyor gözük- ‘seem [to] be finishing’

yardím et- ‘help’

hastá ol- ‘become ill’

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III. STRESS IN SUFFIXES

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In terms of stress, the suffixes of Turkish are divided into two classes: stressable and unstressable.

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III.I STRESSABLE SUFFIXES

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The great majority of Turkish suffixes belong to this class. The effect of stressable suffixes on the position of potential word stress is as follows:

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(i) When a stressable suffix is added to a root in which the final syllable (whether part of the root, or itself a suffix) is also stressable, the position of word stress moves to the new final syllable.

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kitáp - ‘book’

kitap-lár - ‘books’

kitaplar-ím - ‘my books’

kitaplarım-dá - ‘in my books’

kitaplarımda-kí - ‘the one in my books’

kitaplarımdaki-lér - ‘the ones in my books’

kitaplarımdakiler-é - ‘to the ones in my books’

kír- - ‘break’ - ‘it will be broken’

kır-íl - ‘be broken’

kırıl-acák - 

kırılacak-lár - ‘they will be broken’

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(ii) When a stressable suffix is added to a root in which the final syllable is not stressable I.II), i.e. is irregular, the position of word stress remains on the stressed syllable of the root:

iskémle - ‘chair’

iskémle-ler - ‘chairs’

iskémleler-imiz - ‘our chairs’

iskémlelerimiz-de - ‘on our chairs’

iskémlelerimizde-ki - ‘the one on our chairs’

iskémlelerimizdeki-ler - ‘the ones on our chairs’

Afríka - ‘Africa’

Afríka-lı - ‘African’

Afríkalı-lar - ‘Africans’

Afríkalılar-ın - ‘of Africans’

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As a result, inflected common nouns and inflected place names have different stress patterns:

mısırdakilér ‘the ones in the maize’

Mísır’dakiler ‘the ones in Egypt

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(iii) Some suffixes which are polysyllabic, e.g. (y)Iver, -(y)Agel, -(y)Akal, syllables in these suffixes are unstressable: -(y)ArAk, -mAksIzIn, -sAna, -sAnIzA, -(I)yor and -(y)Adur and -(y)Ayaz, are stressed on their first syllable. The other syllables in these suffixes are unstressable:

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kaz- ‘dig’ kaz-árak (‘by digging’)

bak- ‘look’ bak-máksızın (‘without looking’)

gel- ‘come’ gel-íyor (‘s/he is coming’)

tut- ‘hold’ tut-úver (‘hold’)

şaş- ‘be astounded’ şaş-ákal-dı-m (‘I was astounded’)

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The first syllable of these polysyllabic suffixes bears the word stress even when other stressable suffixes follow:

gel-íyor-lar - ‘they are coming’

tut-úver-miş - ‘apparently s/he suddenly took hold of [it]’​

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When they attach to irregular roots they either retain their stress, or they lose it and the original stress of the root reemerges:

Afrikalılaşárak or Afríkalılaşarak -  ‘by becoming Africanized’

 

If two suffixes of this group of stressable suffixes occur on the same word, the first

one is stressed:

 

tut-úver-iyor - ‘s/he suddenly takes hold of [it]’

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III.II. UNSTRESSABLE SUFFIXES AND CLITICS

There are a number of suffixes and clitics in Turkish which do not take stress and are pre-stressing. These are:

 

(i) The copular markers TravisDI, -(y)mIş, -(y)sA, the converbial marker -(y)ken and the generalizing modality marker -DIr:

• gel-sé-ymiş ‘if s/he had arrived’

• gid-ér-se ‘if s/he goes’

• otur-úr-ken ‘while sitting’

• oku-yacák-tır ‘s/he will most certainly read’​

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(ii) The marker -(y)lA/ile ‘with’, ‘by’, ‘and’:

• elíyle ‘with his/her hand’, ‘his/her hand and…'

• Alí’yle ‘with Ali’, ‘Ali and…'

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(iii) The derivational suffixes -(A/I)cIK, -CA, -CAsInA, -en, -(y)In, -lA, -leyin, -rA:

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úfacık - ‘tiny’

uçárcasına - ‘as if flying’

kíşın - ‘in winter’

néreye - ‘[to] where’

kadínca - ‘womanly’

tamámen - ‘completely’

yáyla - ‘plateau’

όrada - ‘there’

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(iv) The following person markers:

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• -(y)Im, -sIn, -(y)Iz, -sInIz, -yInIz, -lAr :

uyúr-um ‘I sleep’,‘I will sleep’

anlamíş-sın ‘you have understood’

öğrencí-yim ‘I’m student’

anlayásınız (diye) ‘(so that) you understand’

tutsáklar ‘they are prisoners’

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(v) The particle bile ‘even’:

Ahmét bile ‘even Ahmet’

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(vi) The clitic mI:

gittiníz mi? ‘did you go?’

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(vii) The clitic -(y)sA/ise:

bénse ‘as for me’

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(viii) The negative marker -mA and composite suffixes containing it (e.g. -mAdAn):

gít-me-dik ‘we didn’t go’

bák-madan ‘without looking’

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Note that one exception is the occurrence of -mA in the negative aorist form -mA(z), which is

stressable, e.g. bak-máz-dık ‘we were not in the habit of looking’, yaz-má-yız ‘we will not write’.

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(ix) The clitics dA, ki and ya:

anlıyorúm da -  ‘I understand, but…'

bakmıyordúm ki - ‘but I WASN’T looking’

gördǘ́m ki - ‘I realized that…'

gördǘ́m ya - 'I HAVE seen (it)’

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THE EFFECT OF UNSTRESSABLE SUFFIXES AND CLITICS ON WORD STRESS

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The addition of unstressable suffixes and clitics to a word may or may not change the existing position of stress within that word.

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Regular roots

The addition of any one of the unstressable suffixes and clitics except the negative suffix and the clitics in (ix) above (i.e. dA, ki and ya) to a regular root does not change the existing position of stress in that word:

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geldilér 'they have arrived':

• geldilér-se ‘if they have arrived’

• geldilér bile ‘they have already arrived’

yorgún ‘tired'

• yorgún-um ‘I’m tired’

• yorgún-mu ‘is s/he tired?’

bisiklét ‘bicycle’

• bisiklét-le ‘by bicycle’

• bisiklét-se ‘as for the bicycle’

çocúk - ‘child’

• çocúk- ça ‘childish(ly)’

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Irregular roots

The addition of (i)–(iv) in III.II. (i.e. the copular markers, the generalizing modality marker, the marker -(y)lA/ile, and the adverbial and person markers specified there) to an irregular root tends not to change the existing position of stress within that word:

​Istánbul:

• Istánbul ydım. - ‘I was in Istanbul'

• Istánbul-la - ‘with Istanbul'

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Co-occurrence of unstressable suffixes and clitics

When two or more of the above-mentioned suffixes or clitics (i)–(ix) cooccur in a word, stress falls on the syllable immediately before the unstressable suffixes or clitics or immediately before their unstressable segments:

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otur-úyor-muş-sun bile - ‘apparently you were already sitting’

otur-acák-sa da mı - ‘even if s/he’s going to sit?’

iste-míş mi-ydi-n ki - ‘had you asked for [it], then?’

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An unstressable suffix followed by a stressable suffix

The addition of a stressable suffix to one of the unstressable suffixes or clitics does not alter the position of stress. In the examples below, -DI and -lAr are stressable suffixes following an unstressable suffix:

otúrma - ‘don’t sit down’ , otúr-ma-dı - ‘s/he hasn’t sat down’

okuldá - ‘at school’, okuldá-ymış-lar - ‘apparently they are/were at school’

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Stress and the negative suffix

The addition of the negative suffix changes the existing position of potential stress within a word, attracting it to the syllable before itself:

sevíyor - ‘s/he likes [it]’

sévmiyor - ‘s/he doesn’t like [it]’

Istánbullulaş - ‘become like a native of Istanbul’

Istanbulluláş-ma - ‘don’t become like a native of Istanbul

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Stress and the clitics dA, ki and ya

The addition of these clitics ((ix) in III.II) has the effect of placing stress on the immediately preceding syllable, even if this syllable is otherwise unstressable:

istemíştim - ‘I had wanted [it]’, istemiştím ki [otursun] - I had wanted [him/her to sit down]’

anlayámıyorum - ‘I can’t understand', anlayamıyorúm ki - ‘but I can’t understand’

söylémemiş - ‘s/he hasn’t said [it]’, söylememíş ya - ‘but s/he HASN’T said [it]’

yürüyorum ‘I (can) walk’, yürüyorúm da koşamıyorum ‘I can walk but I can’t run,'