Resources recently brought to our attention:

Nihan Ketrez: A Student Grammar of Turkish. (Cambridge University Press) 2012

“A Student Grammar of Turkish is a concise introduction to Turkish grammar, designed specifically for English-speaking students and professionals. Written with the needs of the learner very much in mind, it sets out the grammar of the language in a clear and jargon-free style. The book not only explains the fundamentals of the grammar, but also tests students' understanding in an interactive way with more than 200 exercises. Key grammar points are summarized in tables and there are numerous illustrative examples. A list of grammatical terms used in the book and a key to all the exercises are also provided. This essential grammar and exercise book can be used as a supplement for students studying the language, with a dual function as a reference guide to look up grammar points, and as a resource from which exercises can be set and language skills practiced.”

Includes more than 200 sets of exercises that are prepared specifically to practice the grammar points discussed in the book

            Key grammar points are summarized in tables and there are numerous illustrative examples

Şenel Symons: The Routledge Intermediate Turkish Reader: Political and Cultural Articles (Routledge Modern Language Readers), 2012

“This reader has been especially designed for intermediate and advanced learners of Turkish and comprises a broad selection of graded readings.

Suitable for both class use and independent study, the Reader is an essential tool for increasing language proficiency and enriching learners’ socio-cultural knowledge of Turkey.”

Reviewed by Ercan Balcı: AATT Newsletter January 2013, p. 10.

A Turkish Graphic Novel on the Internet!

A Dictionary of Turkish Verbs In Context and By Theme

Ralph Jaeckel and Gülnur Doganata Erciyes

With the Collaboration of Mehmet Süreyya Er
768 pages, Georgetown University Press, March 2006

One of the keys to learning the Turkish language is to understand the importance and function of the verb. A Dictionary of Turkish Verbs is an aid to both the beginning and more advanced student of the language by providing approximately 1,000 verbs in context as they appear in up-to-date colloquial phrases and sentences, or short dialogues in translation. The dictionary includes an English-Turkish index and a thesaurus section (using Roget's categories) where verbs of related meaning appear together, and a short reference list of verb-forming suffixes.

ELEMENTARY TURKISH

A Complete Course for Beginners by Kurtuluş Öztopçu.
Turk Dilleri Araştırmaları Dizisi: 41

Santa Monica, California - Istanbul. 2006.
(xxiii + 752 pages with 2 Audio CDs) ISBN 975-7981-34-6

Elementary Turkish is a beginning level course for learners of Turkish. The variety of Turkish presented in this textbook corresponds to standard Turkish, the official language of the Republic of Turkey and the language spoken by educated Turkish speakers. Elementary Turkish is designed to provide beginning students with sufficient Turkish to meet most of their everyday needs. Once students finish the textbook, they should be able to speak, understand, read, and write Turkish at the level of intermediate-mid. This textbook can be used in a classroom setting or as a self-study aid. The book is based on an eclectic method that incorporates different aspects of various language teaching methodologies.

Features
* It has a multi-skills syllabus.
* It is cyclical: materials presented in one unit recur in the same or expanded form, in the subsequent unit(s).
* It is frequency based: materials chosen are comprised of high-frequency words, idioms, expressions, and grammatical structures
* The language used is not artificial, but natural, avoiding contrived expressions.
* Grammar is graded, moving from simple to more complex elements. The grammar sections are expanded to facilitate the learners’ needs.
* Units are based on conversations. Materials in each unit are designed to complement and elaborate on these conversations.
* Functional and communicative features are given priority.
* Most functions, grammar points, and topics covered in the book are compatible with those addressed in AATT’s Provisional Proficiency Guidelines for Turkish and LLF Interim Report.
* Culture is treated as an integral part of the language and the language-learning process.
* The book contains over 500 exercises. At the end of the book, there is an Answer Key to exercises to support learners who are studying Turkish on their own.
* Audio materials (in two CDs) contain the alphabet, all of the conversations and the listening sections.
* There are six review units, one after every four units.
* An English translation is provided for each conversation and sample sentence for learners who do not have the benefit of having an instructor or tutor.
* A cumulative Turkish-English glossary contains about 1,200 most-frequently-used words.
* A reverse English-Turkish glossary is provided for convenience.

The Author
Dr. Kurtulus Öztopçu is currently teaching Azerbaijani at UCLA and Turkish at the Beverly Hills Lingual Institute, Beverly Hills, California. For several years, he taught various courses related to Turkic languages at Boğazici University in Istanbul, UCLA and UCBerkeley. He is the author of several scholarly books and articles all relating to Turkic languages, including the Dictionary of Turkic Languages and Elementary Azerbaijani.

Fifty Nasreddin Hodja Stories

Yıldıray Erdener, University of Texas at Austin
202 pages, Dunwoody Press, 2009

This collection contains 50 Nasreddin Hodja (d. 1284) stories. It is a supplementary listening material for intermediate Turkish students. We know that children acquire their mother tongue by listening to a sound unit many times before attempting to imitate the sound. Using the same model Erdener suggested that students should first become familiar with the vocabulary of a given story, then listen to it many times. Finally, s/he should try to retell the story and then open the book and read it. After each story there are comprehension questions that refer back to the text and verify students' understanding of the story. There are also translation exercises, word order, forming questions, true-false questions about the text, fill-in-the-blank section and some grammar explanations. Most of the Hodja stories are short. They are funny, lively and full of cultural references. The book comes with a CD on which Erdener read fifty Hodja stories.

These stories have been handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth and rarely by the written word. People told and retold the stories to entertain, and teach proper conduct and morals. Following the oral tradition Erdener suggests that this book is not for one's eyes but for one's ears.

Yıldıray Erdener

101 Turkish Idiomatic Expressions

Hyattsville,Maryland: Dunwoody Press, 2004
       101 Turkish Idiomatic Expressions presents a sample of culturally rich Turkish idioms embedded in literary contexts.  The book serves not only to teach language  but is a window into contemporary Turkish literature and culture.  The idioms in the book are all drawn from their association with body parts, particularly the head and those organs associated with the intellect,  the emotions, and the intuitive or sixth sense. Thus, students are encouraged to reflect upon the unique ways that Turkish culture symbolically recasts a body part to impart cultural values. 
        The idioms in the book are organized alphabetically by organ, beginning with the mouth (ağız), and continuing on through the brain, forehead, neck, nose, chin, tongue, eye, head, eyebrow, ear, heart, and face (yüz).  As illustrated by the discussion of the eye, each of the body parts offers opportunities to discuss the symbolically complex relationship between  an organ, language, and culture. Idioms allow teachers and students to discuss language and cultural references, while learning critical everyday language skills.  No one can effectively function in a culture until they have a grasp of important commonly used idioms.
        101 Turkish Idiomatic Expressions presents the literal meaning of the idioms, following by its figurative meaning. For each idiom there are excerpts from major Turkish literary works which illustrate how  the idiom has been used in written language. The passages are drawn from the novels and short stories of well-known Turkish authors. Thus, the student is introduced to the idiom's usage by contemporary Turkish writers,  and consequently becomes aware of a body of Turkish literature.
        101 Turkish Idiomatic Expressions is a unique publication because it relates idioms to literature and provides humorous illustrations which will increase the interest and consequently the perception of students so that they are more attentive in learning the idioms.

Yıldıray Erdener

       The book uses songs as a vehicle to teach the Turkish language. It is an innovative way of teaching language because verbal stimuli directs itself toward the left hemisphere of the brain and sonorous musical waves move toward the right hemisphere. Song texts and music stimulate both sides of the brain and make the learning process easier. Included are lyrics, musical transcriptions, cultural notes, grammar, vocabulary, and exercises for fourteen well-known folk songs. The songs' level of comprehension difficulty increases sequentially. The book includes a key to the exercises and a detailed index. Accompanying the book is a CD on which the author plays the saz (a long-necked fretted folk lute) and sing the songs.

Table of contents:
I.   Ali Baba'nın çiftliği: the genitive and possessive suffixes
II.   Istanbul'un şekeri: a children's rhyme to teach how to count from one to ten
III.  Var Yok: there is/there is not
IV.   Postacı geliyor: the present progressive tense
V.   Kara Basma: negative imperative -mE
VI.   Mahmut'um: indirect imperative -sIn
VII.  Dere Geliyor: -(y)E..(y)E
VIII.  Çanakkale Türküsü: -mEdEn
IX.   Fincanı taştan oyarlar: the aorist tense
X.   Üsküdar'a gider iken: while, when
XI.   Madımak: -IncE
XII.   Arabaya taş koydum: 'diye' expressing unspoken thought
XIII.  Ziller: takıver, dönüver expressing swiftness, suddenness
XIV   Köroğlu: the passive

Turkish-English/English-Turkish
Dictionary & Phrasebook

Charles Gates, archaeologist and assistant professor at Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey.
228 pages, Hippocrene Books, Inc., 2002

• 2,500 entries
• Pronunciation Guide
• Basic Turkish Grammar
• Essential Phrases
• Cultural Information for Travelers
• Ideal for the traveler, student, or new resident

A fully revised second printing of Walker/Erols'
Received from B.K. Walker, Curator, Archive of Turkish Oral Narrative
Lubbock, TX 79409:

To Set Them Free: The Early Years of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

became available on September 30, 1998. Expanded by Barbara K. Walker and newly translated by Prof. Sema G. Kormali. it bears the original English title and a new Turkish title: Özgürlük Ugruna: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk'ün Gençlik Yillari. This book meets the needs of readers of all ages and both languages to explore the formative years of the founder of the Republic of Turkey and to account for the achievements of this remarkable man.

The new printing, already chosen for Turkish-language intermediate courses by several U.S. colleges and universities, will be welcomed also by the growing number of Turkish schools established in North America by enterprising Turkish-American and Turkish-Canadian associations. It will be appreciated, too, by Turkish-American extended families where both languages are still spoken and read, allowing several generations to share the making of Kemal Atatürk, who truly "set his people free," an account new to many even at the 75th anniversary of the Republic that he and his colleagues founded.

Set on facing pages throughout (with English on the verso page and Turkish on the recto page), this newly designed paperback volume offers a generous range of fully annotated illustrations (especially plentiful in the final and victorious last chapter) with captions in both languages. New maps locate places of special importance in Atatürk's formative years, in his military career, and in his winning of his people to a new and self-respecting life.

This tonic volume can now be ordered from the publisher: PRO LINGUA ASSOCIATES; Tel. 800-366-4775; FAX 802-257-5117; VISA/MC/AMEX or check, for $16.00 per copy plus shipping and handling. This 254-page volume will shortly be available also in Turkey through DÜNYA EDUCATION (Tel. 90-212-629-0808; FAX 90-212-629-0305).

Published: Thursday, January 12, 2012