Turkish Alphabet at a Glance
- 29 letters: 8 vowels (a, e, ı, i, o, ö, u, ü) and 21 consonants; letters Q, W, X are excluded [1]
- Uses the Latin script while treating dotted i (i/İ) and dotless ı (ı/I) as separate letters [1]
- Includes distinctive letters: ç (ch), ğ (soft g), ş (sh), ö, ü [1]
- Classified in the Oghuz branch of the Turkic language family [2]
- Official language of Turkey and Northern Cyprus [3]
- Alphabet reforms established a phonetic Latin script with consistent letter-sound correspondence [4]
- Türk Dil Kurumu (TDK) maintains orthographic standards and corpus statistics [4]
Turkish Vowel Letters
The Turkish alphabet has 8 vowel letters: a, e, ı (dotless i), i (dotted i), o, ö, u, ü. The distinction between ı and i is unique to Turkish and crucial for correct pronunciation and spelling [1].
Turkish Vowels (Lowercase)
Turkish Vowels (Uppercase)
Turkish-Specific Letters
Turkish has 6 letters not found in English: ç (che), ğ (yumuşak ge), ı (dotless i), ş (şe), ö, and ü. These letters are essential for proper Turkish spelling and pronunciation. Note that Turkish does not use Q, W, or X [1].
Turkish-Specific Letters (Lowercase)
Turkish-Specific Letters (Uppercase)
Turkish Consonant Letters
Turkish has 21 consonant letters [1]. The soft g (ğ) is special – it lengthens the preceding vowel and is never pronounced as a hard consonant [4].
Turkish consonants are generally pronounced as they are written, making Turkish spelling quite phonetic.
Turkish Consonants (Lowercase)
Turkish Consonants (Uppercase)
Special Characters in Turkish
Turkish writing uses punctuation marks and symbols including period (.), comma (,), question mark (?), exclamation (!), and quotation marks. Turkish also uses the Turkish Lira symbol (₺) [1].
Turkish punctuation rules are similar to those used in other Latin script languages.
Digits in Turkish
Turkish uses the standard Arabic numerals 0–9, with Turkish number names: sıfır, bir, iki, üç, dört, beş, altı, yedi, sekiz, dokuz [1].
Like many European languages, Turkish uses a comma (,) as the decimal separator [1].
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
References:
- [1] Unicode Consortium. "Latin Extended-B Block". Retrieved from Unicode Latin Extended-B
- [2] Glottolog. "Turkish". Retrieved from https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/nucl1301
- [3] Turkish Constitution Article 3. "Official Language of Turkey". Retrieved from Turkish Ministry of Culture
- [4] Türk Dil Kurumu (Turkish Language Association). "Turkish Language Statistics". Retrieved from Turkish Language Association
Sambhu Raj Singh · 
