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The 3 Spelling Variations of
the Suffix 'den'
are
'dan',
'ten',
and 'tan'
This isn't as mysterious as it may first
seem. And if you'll remember that the Turkish language always
strives for a harmonious sound, it's not such an horrific task
to cater for these minor spelling variations.
So before you set about attaching 'den'
to an attachee word you need to be conscious of two points.
Firstly, if the attachee word ends in ç,
f, h, k, p, s, ş,
t then the 'd' in 'den' must change to 't'
before the attachment takes place.
Secondly, the 'e' in 'den'
(or 'ten') may have to change to 'a' depending on
the last vowel in the attachee word -- in accordance with the Rule
of Vowel Harmony.
Let's look at examples with the 'den' suffix and each of its spelling variants:
| Attachee word... Candidate for the suffix 'den'. (Turkish cities)
| Is the ending letter of the attachee word:
ç, f, h, k, p, s, ş, t?
| So, should 'd' of the suffix change to 't'?
| Observe the last vowel of the attachee word.
What does the Rule of Vowel Harmony dictate?
Should 'e' of the suffix change to 'a'?
| Resulting Turkish
| English Meaning
|
| İstanbul
| no | no
| yes | İstanbul'dan
| from Istanbul
|
| Eskişehir
| no | no
| no | Eskişehirden
| from Eskişehir
|
| Muş
| yes | yes
| yes | Muştan
| from Muş
|
| Gaziantep
| yes | yes
| no | Gaziantepten
| from Gaziantep
|
Confusion between the 'den' Suffix
and
the Endings Found on Certain Present Participles
Yup, it's possible to be confused at first,
but only with a very few present participles.
What's
a present participle and
what's the standard way to make one in
Turkish?
So don't fret.
Observe…
Yeni Türk yazarlarına en çok tesir eden
kitap
Ince Mehmed'tir;
The book having
most influence
on modern Turkish writers is Ince Mehmed
(Mehmed, My Hawk).
In this case, the 'den' in 'eden'
is not the suffix.
The suffix, in this case, is 'en' -- and it aids
the formation of the present participle 'eden' meaning
'having' (in this case, when it's used with with tesir; influence).
And the spelling of 'eden' arises as follows:
The infinitive form of the verb is etmek;
to make, do.
To make the present participle of this verb, you start in
the standard way to create any present participle
of any verb.
That is, you strip the verb ending (in
this case 'mek') giving the verb stem 'et' and then
add 'en'.
Ahhh, but that's not quite
right… because, as you
add the suffix 'en' to the stem of this particular (exceptional)
verb, you must change the 't'
of 'et' to 'd'.
Why?
Because there
are just a few verb stems in Turkish
for which the final 't' changes to 'd' when a vowel
is added. And the stem of etmek is one of them. Another
one is the stem of gitmek; to
go (and
gütmek;
to pasture)…
Example with 'gitmek':
Ava giden
avlanır;
A
person can fall into his own trap.
[The one going
to the hunt will be caught.]
Turkish Proverb.
So there you go. Are ya' feeling
any better about Turkish suffixes now?
You are…?!
Well, iddin tha' nice.
But, you say you've still
got other problems with the language?
Don't feel bad.
Remember what
(our beloved, dearly departed)
Roseanne Roseannadana
used to say
about the Turkish language…
"There's
always somethin'…"
R.I.P.
Gilda
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