Proto-Turkic/Basics

Welcome to the second lesson of Proto-Turkic!

Verb clauses
Verb clauses are formed by adding a tense to the end of the verb. Let's consider the aorist suffix *-ur, *-ür and its opposite *-maŕ, *meŕ.


 * I love horses. - Bẹ atïŕïg sebür.
 * My mother doesn't love him. - Anam anï sebmeŕ.

However, in some Turkic languages like Turkish, Tatar, or even Old Turkic, this suffix was combined with another suffix *-aŕ or *-eŕ to form unpredictable choice of aorist form.

Noun clauses
There are no noun clauses in Proto-Turkic. The verb to stand or to be (auxiliary) takes the suffix *-ur, *-ür in the present tense, and noun phrases are provided in this way. If the sentence is positive, it may not take any verb or suffix.


 * Hen is a bird - Takïgu kuĺ (turur/erür).
 * Butter is not a fruit - Yāg yẹ̄miĺč turmaŕ/ermeŕ.

Family members

 * mother - *ana
 * father - *ata
 * girl, daughter - *kï̄ŕ
 * boy - *ēr
 * son - *ogul
 * elder sister - *eke
 * elder brother - *ečey
 * younger sister - *siŋil
 * younger brother - *ini (unclear, perhaps Proto-Common-Turkic)
 * bride - *kẹlin
 * son-in-law - *küdegü
 * a man's wife's younger sister - *bāldïŕ

The reason why *ini is not clear is that it is not found in the Oghur group. Sometimes some words are reconstructed for (Pre-)Proto-Turkic even though they are not found in Lir Turkic. These configurations include Proto-Common-Turkic, non-Lir legacy configurations are not (Pre-)Proto-Turkic.

Next Lesson: Locative-ablative case and plurality