Turkish substantive question words
When beginners are learning Turkish, they are often introduced to the most common Turkish question words as translations for words in their native languages, such as the following:
ne = what
nerede = where
niçin = why
A little later in their Turkish course, they may learn that there are three words for "where" and three words for "why":
nerede = at where (Nerede oturuyorsun? = Where do live?)
nereye = to where (Nereye gidiyoruz? = Where are we going?)
nereden = from where (Nereden geldi? = Where did he/she/it come from?)
niçin = for what (Niçin soruyorsun? = Why are you asking? [for what purpose])
niye = to what (Niye soruyorsun? = Why are you asking? [where are you going with this])
neden = from what (Neden soruyorsun? = Why are you asking? [where does this come from])
*Note that the above three represent a very subtle difference and are often interchangeable.
But what we usually don't learn is how these words actually work in Turkish, and what their grammatical basis is. The fact is that there are two basic question words for all of these:
ne = what
nere = where
Onto these question words, a host of endings can be added, changing both the meaning and the grammar of the word.
The six examples above, for "where" and "why" each start with one of these bases and add the common postpositionals:
-için = for
-de = at
-ye = to
-den = from
(*Note that the "e" in "ne" changes to an "i" when following by "-için" and "-ye".)
However, the most interesting question word ending for me is the substantive question word, such as the following:
Nesi hoşuna gitmiyor = What is it that you don't like about it/him/her?
The word "ne" has the substantive genitive suffix "-si", making it "What part of it/him/her". Another one is one I ran across in a headline this morning:
"Büyüyoruz büyüyoruz da neremiz büyüyor?" = We're growing and growing, but what part of us is growing?
Here, the word "nere" has the substantive genitive 1st person plural suffix "imiz", making it "what part of us".
This same thing happens with the particle "bura" in Turkish, meaning "this part":
Burada oturuyorum. = I live here.
Buraya koyalım. = Let's put it over here.
Burası hoştur. = This place is nice.
This also leads Turkish speakers to make the following error when speaking English:
"Here is nice". "I like here."
This mistake is caused by the speaker translating "burası" as "here", when it actually means "this place".
I would welcome comments (and corrections!) on this blog post.
Labels: grammar, question words, Turkish
posted by Laura Blumenthal @ 9:23 a.m.
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