THE TURKISH LANGUAGE is spoken by approximately 56 million people over a large geographical area in Europe and Asia. It is closely related to the Azeri, Turkmen, Tatar, Uzbek, Bashkir, Nogay, Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Yakut, and Chuvash languages. Turkish is an ancient language, going back at least 5,500 years, perhaps as many as 8,500.  As a Ural-Altaic language it offers English speakers an excellent opportunity to learn a language with a non-Indo-European phonetic, morphological, syntactic structure, and vocabulary. The fundamental features which distinguish the Turkish language from Indo-European languages are as follows:

1. Vowel harmony, a feature of all Ural-Altaic tongues.
2. The absence of gender.
3. Agglutination
4. Adjectives precede nouns.
5. Verbs come at the end of the sentence.

The Turkish language has been designated by the U.S. State Department as a critical language whose study is of strategic importance.

Turkish culture is rich and historical. http://www.geocities.com/resats/culture.html Turkey was the center of the Ottoman Empire (1300-1919). http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/OTTOMAN/OTTOMAN1.HTM While most Turks are Muslims, Turkey has no state religion and Turkish law and government are not based upon Muslim law. About 17% of the populations are Kurds, a traditionally nomadic population.

TTU offers Turkish language and culture courses for the first time beginning in Fall 2003 under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. State Department's Strategic Languages Initiative administered through the International Educational Exchange.

The TTU Southwest and Special Collections Library possesses one of the most important Turkish culture resources in the world, The Archive of Turkish Oral Narrative http://aton.ttu.edu. These materials are incorporated into the CMLL 4300 "Turkish Culture" course.

During the Fall 2003 semester course proposals will be submitted for a TURK course prefix; first and second-year Turkish Language courses TURK 1501, TURK 1502, TURK 2301, and TURK 2302; an upper-level topics course TURK 4300; and a formal minor in Turkish Language and Culture. Until these courses are approved, the are being taught under an umbrella CMLL prefix.

• Turkish Language Courses can be used to satisfy TTU Foreign Language Requirements.
• These courses also can prepare you for exotic and exciting study-abroad opportunities.
     (see http://www.iaff.ttu.edu/Home/OIA/StudyAbroad/BBSABPrograms.asp)

INSTRUCTORS:

Ms. Yagis Yildirim, Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant, Foreign Languages Building 004, 806-742-3145, extension 223; yagis.yildirim@ttu.edu

Turkish instruction is coordinated and supervised by Dr. Anthony Qualin, Associate Professor of Russian.

COURSES:

*Note: This course is listed as CMLL 1301 but will be changed to CMLL 1501 as soon as final approval is obtained. It is a 5 credit course.

†Note: These courses do not show up on the Fall 2003 on-line list of courses but are being offered. See Liz Hildebrand in the CMLL Advising, Recruiting, and Retention Office (contact information below) to enroll.

ENROLLMENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR NONDEGREE STUDENTS AND MEMBERS OF THE LUBBOCK COMMUNITY: Persons possessing a bachelors degree or higher may take undergraduate language courses as a Nondegree Student. Admission is simple: Obtain an application at www.ttu.edu/gradschool, apply for admission as a Post Graduate (PRGD) Nondegree Student, pay the $50 application fee, and submit transcripts of all previous college level study. When admitted enroll in the appropriate language course. Once admitted you may register indefinitely in undergraduate TTU courses. For more information contact the CMLL Academic Program Advisor, Liz Hildebrand, liz.hildebrand@ttu.edu, 200 Foreign Languages Building, 806-742-4055.