Palatalized consonants in Turkish

One of the first exceptions in Turkish that learners face is the irregular plural – saatler, hayaller, etc. “But why is it saatler and not saatlar??” The answer is palatalized consonants.

Today’s blog will teach you palatalized G, K, L, and T. Knowing when they occur and how to pronounce them will vastly improve your pronunciation, surpassing that of native speakers, and help you understand the exceptions of vowel harmony in Turkish. If you don't know how to pronounce palatalized consonants, click here.

1. Palatalized G and K

All palatalized consonants in Turkish occur in loanwords, mostly from Arabic and Persian. Thankfully, palatalized G and K are always shown in spelling by a little hat (^) placed above the following vowel.

Funnily enough, natives and even teachers massively struggle with palatalized G and K, pronou ncing them without palatalization. As a learner, you must be extra careful not to be influenced by this. Finally, here are some examples (click on a highlighted word to hear its pronunciation):

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
gâvur	gʲa'vur	non-Muslim (derogatory)
kâğıt	kʲa'ıt or kʲa:t	paper
kâtip	kʲa:'tip	clerk, stenographer, scribe
hükûmet	hükʲu:'met	government
sükûn/sükûnet	sü'kʲu:n('et)	peace, tranquility
Hakkâri	hak'kʲa:ri	a city in Türkiye

Pronunciation legend: ʲ - palatalization of the preceding consonant

: - long vowel

' - the following syllable is stressed

2. Palatalized L and T

Palatalized L and T similarly occur in loanwords, this time including French. Unfortunately, these two palatalizations are not shown in writing. Although there are two rules that greatly help with memorization:

1. Word-initial L’s are always palatalized;

2. Palatalized T’s can only occur in word-final position.

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
lazım	lʲa:'zım	needed, necessary
lamba	'lʲamba	lamp
ahlak	ah'lʲak	ethics
alarm	a'lʲarm	alarm
hayal	ha'yalʲ	dream, aspiration
alkol	alʲ'kolʲ	alcohol
saat	sa:tʲ	hour, time, clock, wristwatch
sıhhat	sıh'hatʲ	health
sürat	sü'ratʲ	velocity, speed

3. Palatalization and vowel harmony exceptions in Turkish

Word-final palatalization causes following suffixes to always have front vowels (E, İ, or Ü) regardless of whether the last vowel in the word is a back vowel (A, I, O, or U). Here are some examples:

• hayal – Hayaller, hayatlar! (Expectations vs. reality!)

• kontrol – Kontrolü kaybetme! (Don’t lose control!)

• saat – Bu Orhan’ın saati. (This is Orhan’s watch.)

• sıhhat – Sıhhatler olsun! (Health be upon you!, said to someone who has just taken a shower or gotten a haircut)

Sıhhatler olsun!

4. How to pronounce the palatalized consonants in Turkish

For palatalized G and K, bunch the body of the tongue and place it against the hard palate (the roof of the mouth). When doing so, aim for the center of your palate because placing the tongue body too far back (i.e., the soft palate) will produce a regular G sound.

For palatalized L and T, position the tip of the tongue on the two front teeth or the alveolar ridge and raise the body of the tongue closer to the hard palate.