Malay Vs Turkish Language (an old Entry)-a New entry to follow suit

Some of you may have missed this entry.. an entry i had written in May 2006. My next entry will be on the tenses (as i had promised *Gab* in my comment section)..so i thought it is only fair if i re enter this one old entry so that u will have a better understanding of the turkish language.

An Overview of the Turkish Language with simple comparison to the Malay Language

Malay and Turkish.Yes. There are a few similarities and differences between the two languages.Malay or Bahasa Melayu first of all is an Austronesian language, once upon a time, was very widely used in the Malay Archepalago. Turkish on the other hand, is from a different language family called Ural-Altaic languages.

When Islam arrived in the Southeast Asia during the 14th century, the Arabic script was adapted to write the Malay Language. In the 17th Century,the Arabic script was replaced by the Latin Alphabet under the influence from the Dutch and British.The Turkish Language also went through almost the same fate.Under the Ottoman Empire,the Arabic script was used.However, when the Republic of Turkey (Turk Cumhuriyet) was formed under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk,Latin Alphabet replaced the Arabic script.

The Latin Alphabet for Malay consists of 8 vowel and diphtongs and 28 consonants. They are:

vowels and diphtongs
a e i o u ai au ua

consonants
b c d dz f g h j k kh l m n ny ng ngg
p q r s sy t ts v w x y z

Turkish alphabet consists of 29 letters - 8 vowels and 21 consonants.
-Each letter has exactly one associated sound which never changes
-Three letters of the English alphabet are missing in the Turkish alphabet. They are:

(Q-q)
(W-w)
(X-x)
-There are six additional characters not found in the English alphabet.
(Ç-ç)
(Ğ-ğ)
(I-ı)
(İ-i)
(Ö-ö)
(Ş-ş)
(Ü-ü)

Letter Pronunciation

A, a
like the a in car
B, b
like the b in bet
C, c
like the g in gender
Ç, ç
like the ch in chance
D, d
like the d in debt
E, e
like the e in less
F, f
like the f in felony
G, g
like the g in game
Ğ, ğ
this is a very weak sound, not pronouncing at all will be ok
H, h
like the h in hello
I, ı
like the e in halted
İ, i
like the ee in keen
J, j
like the ge in garage
K, k
like the k in kelly
L, l
like the l in lamb
M, m
like the m in man
N, n
like the n in neighbor
O, o
like the a in ball
Ö, ö
like the u in urge
P, p
like the p in pen
R, r
like the r in rent
S, s
like the s in send
Ş, ş
like the sh in shed
T, t
like the t in tennis
U, u
like the oo in good
Ü, ü
like the u in nude
V, v
like the v in vent
Y, y
like the y in yes
Z, z
like the z in zen

Malay is a SVO language (subject-verb-object).

The basic sentence in Malay is formed with the subject followed by verb and lastly object. For instance;
Saya (subject) makan (verb) nasi (object)
I eat rice

Comparatively,
Turkish is a SOV language (subject-object-verb).

An example of a turkish sentence is:

Ben (subject) seni (object) seviyorum (verb)
I you love

One thing that make Malay and Turkish similar to each other is the vocabulary. Quite a few number of words in turkish are similar to malay. This is due to the fact that these words came from the same root; either persian or arabic words. The words to name a few are:

Malay- Turkish
Askar- asker
Mahkamah- mahkeme
Kitab - kitap
Sabun - sabun

The spelling may be a bit different but in Malay a is usually where the e is used in Turkish.Nonetheless,when the word is pronounced, one can guess the meaning.

Thank You for hopping by...Hope to see u again the next time..