Lesson 43 :Family relationships.The modes of address in Turkish.Converstion: Ailem-My family"

In this lesson we will talk about  the relationships in a tipical Turkish family and the modes of address in Turkish.


Listen to this passage carefully.

" Benim ailem çok kalabalık.Tam on kişi. İki kızkardeşim var.Annem ve babam bizimle oturuyorlar.Böylece on kişi oluyoruz. Bazen eşimin annesi ve babası yanı kayınvalidem ve kayımpederim de geliyor ve bir süre bizde kalıyorlar.Onlar geldiği zaman annem ve babam gelinlerine gidiyorlar.Geçen hafta görümceme gittik. Bir Pazar günüydü.O sabah görümcenin iki torunu da oraya gelmişler.Hep beraber iki saat kadar oturduk ve biz kalktık.Dönüşte amcamlara ve dayımlara uğradık.
Amcamın eşi,yani yengem, evde yoktu.Sinemaya gitmişAma dayımın eşi,yani öbür yengem evdeydi.
Bizim akrabalarımızın hemen hemen hepsi İstanbul'da oturuyorlar."


VOCABULARY/VOCABOLARIO

Kayınvalıde,kaynana: Mother-in-law - suocera
Kayınbirader: Brother-in- law  - cognato
Kayınpeder:    Father-in-law - suocero
Gelin:             Bride- daughter-in-law   -  nuora
Görümce:       Sister-in-law (of the bride)  - cognata (sorella della sposa)
Baldız:            Sister-in-law (of the groom) - cognata (sorella della sposo)
Torun:            Grandson, granddaughter - nipote
Amca:             Uncle (father's brother)  - zio paterno
Teyze:             Aunt (mother's sister)-  zia materna
Hala:              Aunt  (Father's sister) - zia paterna
Dayı:               Uncle (mother's brother) - zio materno
Yenge:            Aunt (uncle's or brother's wife) - cognata (moglie del fratello o dello zio)
Damat:           Groom - sposo
Akraba:          Relatives - parenti (in generale)
kalabalık:       Crowded - affollato
Böylece:          So - cosi
Hemen hemen: Almost - quasi
Ayrıca:               Besides - inoltre


In Turkish there are different forms to address a person.
Look at the following expressions:

For males: Beyefendi - Sir - Daily pronunciation is truncated to: - Beyfendi For females: Hanımefendi - Miss or Madam - Daily pronunciation is truncated to: - Hanfendi - These are used in formal situations and to strangers.

Personal Addressing - Formal and Informal

The  expressions above are used in formal situations. Once names are known then bey and hanım are used after the first name, this usage is still formal and semi-formal. These titles follow the given-name (Christian name) and are written without a Capital Letter:
Ali bey - Mr. Ali
Ayşe hanım - Miss or Mrs. Ayşe
These are used in formal situations when you know the person's first name but also in informal situations to acquaintances, friends and even to you own family members.
Surnames are not usually used in Conversational Turkish, so the Ali bey can mean - Mr. Mustafa and Ayşe hanım can mean Mrs. OR Miss Ayşe (in a formal situation) or it can mean just a friendly Mustafa or Ayşe (without the title) between acquaintances.

Turkish has two words for the first name of a person - isim or ad - and they can both be used at any time as they are interchangeable. The Turkish word for surname is soyadı - there is no corresponding word for surname based in the word isim
İsminiz ne? - What is your first name?
İsmim Erkan. - My name is Erkan

Note:

Polite informal address forms are used most frequently in addressing an older person are "amca", "teyze", "ağabey" and "abla".
The use of these forms however must be commensurate with age difference between the speaker and the addresse.
For instance an adult female would not use "ağabey" or "abla" to a person unknown to her.
Likewise an adult male would avoid using "abla" or "teyze" .
If the name of the person is known he or she may be addressed as Cemal Amca, Fatma Teyze, Sevim Abla....
The same rule also applies in addressing one's own older brother or sister, aunts and uncles.
Older people may address younger males and females using the words " oğlum" and " kızım" respectively.
Also "çocuğum" and evladım" are commonly used in general for both sexexs generally by very elderly people.
Peers address one another with th word "kardeşim", vey common in the colloquial language.

The Muslim Peace Greeting

The tipical  Muslim peace greeting is "selâmünaleyküm", which is an Arabic expression  answered by aleykümselâm
This greeting is mainly used between passing strangers, normally both male, during travel or on entry to a crowded room, such as a tea house, when one cannot address everybody.

Lesson 42 :Positive abilitative (Potential mood) in Turkish.

This lesson will focus on the abilitative form or positive potential mood - Yeterlik fiili - that expresses either ability or disposition.



                                                              GRAMMAR NOTES

The Potential Mood (tense) or abilitative  indicates:

ability - to be able, can  or  disposition - may, might
Whatever in Turkish expresses "yetenek" - ability, accomplishment, acumen, adequacy, aptitude, aptness, artistry, bent, calibre, capability, capacity, competence, competency, disposition, merit, predisposition, prerogative, qualification, quality, resource, skill, talent, vocation.

This pattern uses two special suffixes   -(y)ebil  -(y)abil  appended to the infinitive stems ending in
-MEK  and  -MAK respectively  and preceeding the personal suffixes.The buffer letter "Y" is attached in case the infinitive stems ends in vowel.

Examples:

Okumak (to read)      Okuyabilmek  (to be able to read)
Girmek  (to enter)      Girebilmek      (to be able to enter)

Let's see now the conjugations  in the most common tenses: (we use the verb "gelmek" as example)
 Present Continuous Tense:
gelebiliyorum - I can come, I am able to come, I may come, I might come

Present Simple Tense:gelebilirim - I can come, I am able to come, I may come, I might come

Future Tense:gidebileceksiniz - you will be able to go, etc.

Past Tense:başlayabildik - we could have started, etc..


The Interrogative is formed in the similar manner as the Basic Verb by using the correct question tag according to the number of the personal pronoun:
gelebiliyor muyum? - Can I come?
gelebiliyor musun/musunuz? - Can you come?
gelebilirmiyim?   -  Can I come (simple present)

Future 

kalmak- to stay, to remain- becomes in the Future Potential mood - kalabilmek- to be able to stay, remainkalabileceğim - I will be able to stay
kalabileceksin - you will be able to stay
kalabilecek - he will be able to stay
kalabileceğiz - we will be able to stay
kalabileceksiniz - you will be able to stay
kalabilecekler - they will be able to stay

Future Interrogative
gelebilecek misiniz? - will you be able to come?

Simple Past Tense

beklemek - to wait, to expect - becomes in the Past Definite Potential Form - bekleyebilmek- to be able to wait, expect
bekleyebildim - I could have waited
bekleyebildin - you could have waited
bekleyebildi - he could have waited
bekleyebildik - we could have waited
bekleyebildiniz - you could have waited
bekleyebildiler - they could have waited

Past Interrogative

bekleyebildi mi? - could he have waited

bekleyebildiler mi? - could they have waited

Past Continuous

yapmak - to do, to make - becomes in the Imperfect Past Potential Form - yapabilmek - to be able to do
yapabiliyordum - I was able to do
yapabiliyordun - you were able to do
yapabiliyordu - he was able to do
yapabiliyorduk - we were able to do
yapabiliyordunuz - you were able to do
yapabiliyorlardı - they were able to do

Imperfect Interrogative

Okuyabiliyorlardı mı? - were they able to read?

Past Indefinite Tense

düşünmek - to think - becomes in the Past Indefinite Potential Form - düşünebilmek- to be able to think
düşünebilmişim - it seems I was able to think
düşünebilmişsin - it seems you were able to think
düşünebilmiş - it seems he was able to think
düşünebilmişiz - it seems we were able to think
düşünebilmişsiniz - it seems you were able to think
düşünebilmişler - it seems they were able to think
 This mood is easily formed in all tenses just by inserting an -(y)e or -(y)a before the negative suffix of any negative verb whether it be active, passive, reflexive, reciprocal,or causative - (it is a case of a completely new verb - with its own infinitive).The buffer letter "Y" is used in case the infinitive stem ends in vowel.


A few examples will help better understand this rule:

Present Continuous Tense:

gelemiyorum  - I can't come, I am notable to come, I may not  come, I might not come

Okuyamıyorum - I can't read, I am not able to come, I may not come, I might not come

I mentioned only the resent Continuou for brevity reasons.The rule applies to all the tenses.

Lesson 41:The Reported FutureTense in Turkish-Reading passage: American teachers

In this lesson more we will focus on the reported future tense (mişli gelecek zaman).

Listen to this passage  then read it a couple of time and pick the verbs in reported future tense.

" Amerikalı öğretmenler Türkiye'ye gelmişler. Onlar Türkiye'de Türkçe öğreneceklermiş. Aynı zamanda Türkiye'deki Amerikan okullarında çeşitli dersler öğreteceklermiş. Biraz Türkçe öğrendikten sonra bir kısmı İzmir'e bir kısmı Gaziantep'e gidecekmiş ve bir kısmı da İstanbul'da kalacakmış.
Simdi hepsi İstanbul'daymişlar ve Türkçe kursuna gidiyorlarmiş. Kurs tam bir ay sürecekmiş.Onlar Türkiye'de üç yıl kalacaklrmış."


VOCABULARY/VOCABOLARIO

Amerikalı:  American - Americano
Öğrenmek: To learn - imparare
Öğretmek: To teach- insegnare
Çeşitli:  Various - varie
Bir kısmı:  Some of, a part of - un parte di
Bazı: Some - alcuni/e
Bazıları: Some of them - una parte di loro, alcuni di loro
Hepimiz: All of us - noi tutti
Hepiniz:  All of you - voi tutti
Sürmek:  To last- durare



                                                                    GRAMMATICAL NOTES

Do you remember the reported Past tense we touched in Lesson 34 ?
Well, this is the base to build the Reported Future Tense in Turkish.
We only need to borrow the suffixes   -miş  and    -mış  from  that pattern and use them to conjugate this future tense.
We also remember that Future tense in based on suffixes  -(y)ecek(ğ)  and    -(y)acak(ğ).
Having then collected the information we need, we can proceed to illustrating the Reported Future Tense pattern:

AFFIRMATIVE FORM

Infinitive stem+

Future suffixes   -(y)ecek(ğ) or   -(y)acak(ğ)+

Reported past tense suffixes -miş  or   -mış +

Personal suffixes

Examples:

It seems that she is going to arrive this evening:  O bu akşam gelecekmiş

It seems that they are going to meet the President:  Onlar Başkanıyla görüseceklemiş

It seems that we are going to leave Turkey:  Biz Türkiye'den  ayrılıcakmışız.

NEGATIVE FORM

The pattern has the same structure as in affirmative form.It requires an additional element which is the negative particle   -me   or  -ma to be attached to the infinitive stem, as already seen in other tenses' construction.

Infinitive stem+

Negative particle  -me  or   -ma

Future suffixes -(y)ecek(ğ) or -(y)acak(ğ)+

Reported past tense suffixes -miş or -mış +

Personal suffixes


Examples

It seems that they are not coming tonight:   Onlar gelmeyeceklermiş bu akşam.

It seems I am not going to depart tomorrow: Yarın hareket etmeyecekmişim.

It seems that you are not going to write that letter tomorrow:  Yarın o mektup yazmayacaklamışsın.


For the interrogative and interrrogative- negative form please refer to lesson Lesson 39 since the same rules apply for the reported future tense.