How our speech works

The “ə” sound — between a and e

The easiest place to hear it is the Turkish word ben, "I" — a Turkish speaker makes exactly this sound there: neither a clear e nor an a, but something between. In Ahıska nearly every e sounds like this. The Turkish alphabet has no letter for it, so the word is written in Turkish spelling with the pronunciation beside it. ⚠️ Hence the law: where the pronunciation has ə, the spelling ALWAYS has e. Not "Vatan" but "Veten" [Vətən].

194 words in the dictionary follow this rule

A deep “k” before a, o, u

Before the back vowels a, o and u, k is pronounced deeper in the throat — the “q” of Uzbek and Kazakh. The spelling keeps k; the pronunciation shows q. 79 words are marked this way.

79 words in the dictionary follow this rule

The “x” sound is deeper than Turkish h

Folklore texts often write x where Turkish has h: axıl for akıl, xalx for halk — a guttural sound familiar from Caucasian dialects.

1 word in the dictionary follow this rule

Verbs end in -mah

Where standard Turkish has -mak or -mek, Ahıska almost always has -mah. Learn this one rule and dozens of verbs open up.

53 words in the dictionary follow this rule

Final -k becomes -h

A hard final “k” softens into “h” — the same feature found in the Kars and Ardahan dialects.

39 words in the dictionary follow this rule

Initial p often sounds like b

A word-initial “p” becomes voiced — a feature shared with Black Sea dialects.

4 words in the dictionary follow this rule

The vowel ı becomes i

The Turkish back vowel ı is usually heard as a plain i in Ahıska.

7 words in the dictionary follow this rule

The past tense is always -di

Turkish harmonises the past suffix (aldı, oldu, gördü). Ahıska never does: always -di, and -ti after voiceless consonants. Of 116 verbs verified by a native speaker, 115 follow the rule.

115 words in the dictionary follow this rule

The present tense ends in -iyer

Turkish -iyor answers to Ahıska -iyer/-ıyer: alıyer, ediyer. Verbs in -lamah contract: anlamah gives anlıyer, not anlayıyer — 16 of the verified verbs do this.

113 words in the dictionary follow this rule

The future tense ends in -acah

The final k of Turkish -acak/-ecek becomes h: alacah, verecah (said verəcah). Verbs in -lamah contract in the future as in the present: anlamah → anlıyacah.

111 words in the dictionary follow this rule

Who is doing it — present tense endings

The person ending attaches to the -iyer stem. For "we" it is -uh, not Turkish -uz: geliyeruh. For plural "you" it is the short -siz: siz geliyersiz. The plural -lar on "they" is optional — onlar geliyer is also said, since onlar already carries the plural.

The past tense across persons

The striking form is "we": always -duh, on every verb. Turkish harmonises the vowel (aldık, gördük, yazdık); Ahıska never does: alduh, görduh, yazduh, gelduh. Another frozen ending, like -di and -iyer.

The past continuous ends in -iyerdi

"He was singing", "our elders used to say" — an action stretching through the past. Built from our own blocks: present -iyer plus past -di. Turkish -iyordu answers to -iyerdi: söyliyerdi, diyerdi, turiyerdi.

Two futures: a promise and a plan

The future is said two ways, and the difference is not grammar but firmness. Gelürüm is intention and polite assent: "I will come, I will try to be there" — the answer to an invitation. Gelecem is a settled matter: "I will definitely come, we agreed" — said when the hour is fixed. The form gelür keeps the old Oghuz ü that standard Turkish has lost (there: gelir).

The aorist keeps the older vowel

Where Istanbul says alır and gelir, we say alur and gelür — the old Oghuz vowel that standard Turkish levelled and we kept. After stems like yaz-, iç- it is -ar/-er as in Turkish: yazarım, içerim.

Negation changes shape with the tense

One negative particle, heard differently in each tense: gelmiyerim in the present, gelmedim in the past, gelmiyacam in the future, and gelmez for "does not come at all". A negative command takes -ma/-me: gezme, oturma, sıhılma.

The present tense ignores vowel harmony

Turkish bends the ending four ways: alıyorum, oturuyorum, görüyorum. Ahıska uses one -iyer whatever the stem vowel. Only the linking vowel shifts, and it follows plain two-step harmony: ı after back vowels (alıyerim, bulıyerim, oturıyerim), i after front ones (göriyerim, geliyerim). Two forms where Turkish has four — here our language is the simpler one.

In the past tense the harmony is complete

Here the ending follows the stem through all four steps, as in Turkish: ı after a, u after u, ü after ö, i after i. A voiceless final consonant hardens the d: içtim, not içdim. Harmony has not left the language — it has only withdrawn from the present tense.

Without doing — and before doing

Two similar suffixes split the work. -meden is "without doing": yemek yemeden uyudi — fell asleep without eating. -mesten is "before doing": o gelmesten (evvel) ben çıhtım — I left before he came; often with evvel, but it stands alone too. The speaker's own crib: görmeden getti — left without seeing; görmesten getti — left before he could see. Turkish has no second suffix.

Having come, having seen, without saying

Three ways to hang one action on another: -ince ("when, as soon as"), -üb/-ib ("having done"), and our own -mesten ("without doing") — bir söz demesten getti, "he left without saying a word", where Turkish would use demeden.

When the action does itself

The passive is marked by -ul-/-il-: ev kuruliyer, "the house is being built". The reciprocal takes -ış-: onlar yaraştiler, "they made peace". The reflexive takes -an-: o yahaniyer, "he washes himself". "Himself" is gendi.

Turning a verb into a word

A verb turns into a modifier or a noun with ease. -mış marks what is done: gelmiş adam, "the man who came". The future is built with olan: gelecah olan adam. For "having come" both gelinca and gelib are alive. And geliş is already a noun, "arrival".

The accusative is always -i

"Whom? What?" — Turkish harmonises the ending: atı, evi, gözü, yolu. Ahıska keeps one sound here too: ati, evi, gözi, yoli. The fourth frozen ending of the dialect, after -di, -iyer and -uh.

The word "house" in every case

The cases fall into place without exception. One ending turned out to be our own: -çen instead of Turkish kadar — eveçen, "as far as the house".

Plural and case endings do obey harmony

Unlike the present tense, harmony holds here without exception: -lar, -da, -dan after back vowels; -ler, -de, -den after front ones. One ending is our own, unknown to Turkish: -çen for "as far as" — eveçen.

Whose it is — my, your, our

Possession is marked twice: a pronoun in front and a suffix on the word itself. Benim evim is literally "my house-my". The same with kin: benim abamın evi — "my mother’s house".

There is, there is not: var and yohtur

"There is" is var, as in Turkish. "There is not" comes out fuller: not yok but yohtur. For "I have", both bende ev var and benim evim var are said.

The counter word tene

Counting things, tene stands between the numeral and the noun — Turkish tane under the dialect's ə→e law: ikki tene ev, beş tene adam, on tene, yigirmi tene, yüz tene. Written separately, as in Turkish.

Counting: two houses, and two of them

After a number the noun stays singular: ikki ev, not ikki evler. A counter may be inserted — ikki tene ev. Ordinals take -inci, as in Turkish: birinci, ikinci. "A few" is said with two numbers together: ikki üç gün, "two-three days".

Kimse means "someone", not "no one"

One word has drifted to opposite meanings in the two languages. Here kimse means "someone": kimse geldi. For "no one" heç is added: heç kimse. Likewise heç bişe, heç yerde, heç vahıt.

A question: by voice or by particle

A verb is usually questioned by intonation alone: sen geliyersin? Turkish would require geliyor musun? The particle mi is written SEPARATELY, as in Turkish: gelecah mi? With a noun it is required: bu evdur mi? — "is this a house?"

How it is said every day

A few phrases heard most often at home. "How are you" uses nesil where Turkish has nasıl. Thanks and farewell rest on the word ey, "good": eyim, Allaha şükür.

Tomorrow is "from the morning"

Turkish yarın is not used here: tomorrow is sabahtan, literally "from the morning". Morning is erden. The hour is asked with -tur: saat kaçtur.

How sentences are joined

"Because" is çünki, "therefore" onüçün (literally "for that"), "although" olsada after the verb: gec olsada, o geldi. "Or" comes two ways: yada and yaki.

How one speaks to elders

An older man is addressed as tada, emi, tai or ağa; ağa can join the word itself — ağaemi, "elder uncle". Elders are addressed in the plural: geçin, oturun. Health is asked after with sağluğuz.

One in five words is already Turkish

293 of the 1367 words are identical to standard Turkish. If you know Turkish, you already know a fifth of the dictionary.

293 words in the dictionary follow this rule

Loanwords are the trace of history

The words show where the people lived. Arabic and Persian came with faith and trade before 1944. Russian came with Soviet rule and the war: ahrana, akopı, upravaşi. Uzbek, Kazakh and Kyrgyz arrived after the deportation, in Central Asia. Armenian and Greek remain from the neighbours back in Ahıska.

420 words in the dictionary follow this rule