Contents of the Appendix

1.0 Brief Introduction to the Turkmen Language

1.1 The Alphabets

1.2 Brief Dicussion of the Alphabets

1.3 Learning the New Alphabet

1.4 Learning the Cyrillic Alphabet

1.5 Vowel Harmony

1.6 Long and Short Vowels

1.7 Vocal Transformations

2.0 The Case System

2.1 Cases of Pronouns

3.0 Verbs

3.1a- Present Comprehensive, long form

3.1b - Present Comprehensive, short form

3.2a - Present Perfect

3.2b - Present Perfect (negative)/Habitual Present (negative)

3.3 - Future Certain

3.4 - Future Indefinite

3.5 - Conditional

3.6 - Past Definite

3.7 - Obligatory Form

3.8 - Imperative Forms

3.9 - Intentional Form

4.0 Relative Clauses

5.0 Cases and their suffixes

5.1 Possessive Suffixes

6.0 The Absolute Posessive

7.0 Nouns in Direct Relation

8.0 Coparatives & Superlatives

9.0 Some Unusual Structures in Turkmen Grammar

10.0 Go?ylmalar

10.1 Passive

10.2 Reflexive

10.3 Reciprocal

10.4 Causitive

11.0 Four Important Modal Verbs: otyr, ýatyr, dur, ýör

12.0 Selected Suffixes and Prefixes

12.1 -çy/-çi

12.2 -dar

12.3 -ke?

12.4 -siz/-suz/-syz

12.5 -lik/-lük/-lyk/-luk

12.6 The prefix bi-

12.7 -daky/-däki

13.0 Expressing Needs and Desires

14.0 Indicating Possibility: mümkin

15.0 -dygy/ digi

16.0 Double Verbs

16.1 Expressing Ability: -p/-yp/-ip bilmek

16.2 Doing an Action for Someone: -p/-yp/-ip bermek

16.3 Attempted Action: -p/-yp/-ip görmek

16.4 Anticipated Action: -jak/-jek bolmak

1.0: Brief Introduction to the Turkmen Language

The Turkmen Language belongs to the greater family of Turkic languages. The Turkic languages, together with the Mongolian and Manchu-Tungus languages, form the Altaic language group. Specifically, Turkmen is included in the sub-group of Southern Turkic languages, along with Turkish and Azeri. Among all the Turkic languages, there are similar grammatical structures, similar phonetics and some shared vocabulary.

In some ways Turkmen is an easy language to learn. Unlike Russian or Spanish, Turkmen has no genders. There are no irregular verbs. For the most parts, words are written exactly as they are pronounced. Finally, Turkmen's grammatical case system is remarkably simple once understood, and has almost no exceptions.

The greatest difficulty for beginning Turkmen speakers will probably be adapting to Turkmen's elaborate system of grammatical suffixes, or "tag words" and learning to re-order their speech so that the predicate (verb) is the last thing spoken. Also, many simple English grammatical structures (such as "to have", "to need", or "to be able to") are handled differently in Turkmen.

1.1 The Alphabets

Täze Elipbi Tkmn Cyrillic English Equivalent

Aa Aa a, as in father

Ää ‰´ a, as in cat

Bb Bb b

Çç Hh ch

Dd Dd d

Ee ?/ e, as in egg

Ff Ff f

Gg Gg when starting a word, voiced like the English "g" in "go". Within words, voiced like the throaty "g" in "bag"

Hh Xx h

Ii Ii ee, as in see

Jj Ú… j

Kk Kk k

Ll Ll l

Mm Mm m

Nn Nn n

Oo Oo o, as in go

Öö ýø oo, as in good (approximately)

Pp Pp p

Rr Rr r, pronounced with a trill, as in Russian or Spanish

Ss Ss s

Tt Tt t

Uu Uu u, as in flute

Üü Á¥ like u, but pronounced with rounded lips and higher in the throat

Ww Vv w (in Russian words, as v)

Yy Yy i, as in sit

üý Jj y, as in yes

Zz Zz z

Ñň ?§ ng, as in song

ž¡ "' zh, as in pleasure (only found in Russian words)

? Ww sh, as in wash

?? }] sch, as in fresh cheese (only found in Russian words)

(ýe) Ee ye, as in yes

(ýo) |\ yo, as in yo-yo

(ýa) Qq ya, as in yacht

(ts) Cc ts, as in hats