kazakhtili қазақ тілі

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Vowel harmony — the engine of Kazakh

Basics

Almost every Kazakh suffix comes in two flavours. Which one you pick is decided by one simple rule — and once it clicks, half of Kazakh grammar becomes automatic.

Explanation

Two families of vowels

Every Kazakh vowel belongs to one of two families:

Back (hard) vowels: а, о, ұ, ы — made at the back of the mouth.
Front (soft) vowels: ә, ө, ү, і, е — made at the front.

A native Kazakh word normally keeps to ONE family: бала (child) is all-back, терезе (window) is all-front. This is vowel harmony — the word "agrees with itself".

Explanation

Suffixes follow the word

Grammar in Kazakh works by stacking suffixes onto words, and each suffix has a back version and a front version. The rule:

Look at the LAST vowel of the word. Back vowel → back suffix. Front vowel → front suffix.

бала + лар → балалар (children) — а is back, so -лар
үй + лер → үйлер (houses) — ү is front, so -лер
қала + да → қалада (in the city) — back, so -да
терезе + де → терезеде (on the window) — front, so -де

(Where you see -та/-те or -тар/-тер instead — мектепте, кітаптар — a second rule is also at work: the suffix's first consonant assimilates to a voiceless final. The Plurals topic covers it.)

Names and borrowed words follow the same rule: университет → университетке, Алматы → Алматыға.

Examples

The same suffix, two flavours

  • балалар
    children
    бала + -лар (back)
  • үйлер
    houses
    үй + -лер (front)
  • қалада
    in the city
    қала + -да (back)
  • мектепте
    at school
    мектеп + -те (front; -те after voiceless п)
  • қалаға
    to the city
    қала + -ға (back)
  • дүкенге
    to the shop
    дүкен + -ге (front)
  • достар
    friends
    дос + -тар (back; -тар after voiceless с)
  • гүлдер
    flowers
    гүл + -дер (front; -дер after л)
Practice

Practice: pick the harmonised form

8 sentences · multiple choice · English → Kazakh

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