Note that the "Ç/ç" represents also the "t" sound in "future," as it does the "ch" in "check." However, it cannot represent the "ch" in "chord," because the latter "ch" sounds like the "Kh" in the Arabic name "Khaled" for which there is no alphabet in Turkish. It would be estimated by "kord," because "kh," equivalent to "ch" here, are not used together in Turkish. "Beautiful" would be "biyutiful," which also shows that in Turkish words are generally a series of consonant-then-vowel combinations. (The "y" is always a consonant in Turkish.)

There is no "q" or "w" or "x" in Turkish. "Quit" would be estimated as "kuit," "what" as "huat" or "uat"; "sex" would be "seks," xeriscape "seriskeyp," xenophobic "zenofobik," the latter three duplicating the English sounds exactly. The "â" (soft "a"), though not an alphabet, is used in pronunciation, like the "a" in "la" in "do re mi fa sol (la) si do." In Turkish, the "a" is the hard "a" sound of "u" in "but." English "bet" would be the same in Turkish, "ate" would be "eyt," "byte" or "bite" would be "bayt." However, Turkish cannot reproduce the "ae" sound in "bat." It would be explained parenthetically, like "ä" from German. The hard "g" in "gun" would be the same in Turkish: "gan." However, the "g" in "gentle" would be spelled with "c" as "centıl," as also the "j" sound in "JR" in TV's "Dallas" which would be "Ceyar," duplicating the English sounds exactly. (Turkish "j" is pronounced like "je" in French.) The "İ/i" in Turkish is pronounced like the "i" in "bit." However, the long "i" sound in "pier" or "peer" would be spoken as "piyr" or "piğr" using "y" or soft "ğ" to elongate "i," but perhaps also with a second "i" as "piir," like Turkish "şiir" for poem.

Therefore, our last name "Celâyir" is pronounced in English as "Gel.a.Year," my first name "Sirman" as "Siermann." There are no articles in Turkish, not even "the," but Turkish verbs are more difficult than English verbs. For example, "gelmek--to come, or gel=come--may elongate to "gelebiliyorsanız"--if you can/are-able-to come--where e=connective but also implied if, bil=can, i=connective, yor=present tense, sanız=you polite/plural, in which "a" in "sanız"--rather than affirmative "u" in "sunuz"--reinforces the implied if in previous e; however, the same can also be said more directly as "gelebilirseniz." And unlike English which has lots of small words like "baby" that easily blend to the next word, also by "swallowing" some of the sounds if needed, the Turkish language does not lend itself as easily to songs and beat, because of long verbs, and due to the fact that EACH alphabet must be pronounced clearly. The Turks readily adopt words, things, trends, values, views from other cultures. The language is very rich and florid in the way people use it colloquially, especially for gossip and casual interaction. And they have an infectious sense of humor--but less so if the humor is at their expense.

It would seem to the Turks that the English language has built- in "learning disability," because it assigns different sounds to the same alphabet, or the same sound to different alphabets, causing children to learn words twice: by their spelling and pronunciation. Imagine a child--or immigrant--trying to make sense of daughter ("doğtur") and laughter (laftır), steak ("steyk") and bleak (bliik) . . . In Turkey, spelling contests would not make sense, because all students would spell all words the same way, as they sound. So the young people in Turkey enjoy life, rather than waste time and energy memorizing the spelling of words they may or not understand. (One wonders how much more, and faster and better, children in USA would evolve, if English were a phonetic language . . .)

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