Turkish/Loanwords

Like every natural language Turkish has many loanwords. A good indicator of whether a word is original Turkish or a loanword is to look at the vowels in the word. If the word internally doesn't follow vowel harmony, you know it's probably a loanword. Also, if you find two vowels right next together within a word (impossible in standard Turkish) or long vowels, then it's a loanword. This is one of the biggest problems Turkish speakers have with English. They can't figure out how to pronounce words that don't follow the rules they've been using their entire lives. The most ancient layer of loanwords in Turkish are words borrowed from Mongolian, another East Asian language that has vowel harmony and many of the same sound rules, so these loanwords can be more difficult to identify; however, there are relatively few of them. Arabic aile - عائلة - family bina - بناء - building beyaz - أبيض - white ceviz - جوز - walnut din - دين - religion hayat - حياة - life insan - إنسان - human kahve - قهوة - coffee kalem - قلم - pen kalp - قَلْب - heart kitap - كتاب - book mektup - مكتوب - letter sabah - صباح - morning sebep - سبب - reason sel - سيل - flood takvim - تقويم - calendar zaman - زمان - time zeytin - زيتون - olive French kuaför - coiffeur - hairdresser argo - argot - slang randevu - rendez-vous - meeting bisiklet - bicyclette - bicycle asansör - ascenceur - elevator pantolon - pantalon - trousers kravat - cravate - tie (clothing) lavabo - lavabo - washbasin tuvalet - toilette - toilet banliyö - "banlieue" - suburban (train) mizanpaj - mise-en-page - layout sütyen - soutien-gorge - bra müzisyen - musicien - musician orgazm - orgasm Persian birader - برادر - brother çehre - چِهرِه - face dut - توت - mulberry dürbün - دوربین - binoculars hafta - هَفتِه - week lacivert - لاجورد - navy blue Perşembe - پَنج‌شَنبِه - Thursday sade - سادِه - plain şah - شاه - king şehzade - شاهزادِه - prince siyah - سياه - black Turkish loanwords English, and many other languages, have taken some words from Turkish: yogurt (yoğurt) kebab or shish kebab (kebap or şiş kebap) baklava (baklava) caviar (havyar) pastrami (pastırma) bergamot (bey armudu) bulgur (bulgur) caracal (karakulak) dolman (dolaman) gilet - jelick (yelek) horde (ordu) Janissary (Yeniçeri) kefir (kefir) kielbasa (külbastı) lackey (ulak) latten (altın) odalisque (odalık) pierogi (börek) sarma (sarma) shabrack (çaprak) turquoise (turkuaz) Dolmetscher (dilmaç) Богатыр (batur) μπουζούκι (bozuk) καΐκι (kayık) kessar (kaşar) tiorba (torba)