Turkish: Lonely Planet Phrasebook [Paperback]

Arzu Kurklu (Author), Lonely Planet Phrasebooks (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2005

You wipe the dust from a bejewelled bottle and djinn appears in a cloud of smoke. Three wishes, but of course it only takes one - 'I want to speak Turkish.' In a flash, this phrasebook's in your hand and the words come tumbling out…Cok tesekkur ederim.

Our phrasebooks give you a comprehensive mix of practical and social words and phrases in more than 120 languages. Chat with the locals and discover their culture - a guaranteed way to enrich your travel experience.

Editorial Reviews

Review

National Geographic Traveler, September 2006
'Lonely Planet Phrasebooks. Portable, pocket-size, cheap, and available for almost any country you might want to visit...'

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet; 3 edition (September 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1864503165
• ISBN-13: 978-1864503166
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 3.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,600,800 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars very helpful, November 2, 2008

By 

Peregrine Reader (USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lonely Planet Turkish Phrasebook (Paperback)

It is great to have a handbook written by a native speaker and including modern idiom and usage as well as warnings about which mispronunciations could be a problem. The sections are very well organized

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars compact, helpful, but a bit confusing on pronunciation, August 7, 2009

By 

Horse Trader (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lonely Planet Turkish Phrasebook (Paperback)

It's well organized, and starts off with a series of helpful short phrases that would help a traveler anywhere: hello, goodbye, thank you, please, where are the toilets, that sort of thing. It then introduces information how to use the negative ('I will be' becomes 'I will not be'), and it provides for English-Turkish or Turkish-English. And it includes a transliteration for every Turkish phrase. But I'm still a bit mystified by some examples, such as the ending of 'mu' or 'musiniz' (should be the turkish 'i' without the dot) in a sentence, and when to use them?

But the main issue I had was with the transliteration and not knowing if the g was hard (get) or soft (gentle), or the o was oh or more like uh as in other, if the e was ee or eh, etc. I don't think I'll find out until I get to Turkey and hear a native speaker.

A companion website with pronunciations would be a great addition. One other plus - it gives advice on Turkish life in small blurbs here and there.

19 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent little book, February 15, 2009

By 

Alain Gaston (Apache Jct., Arizona) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lonely Planet Turkish Phrasebook (Paperback)

I am traveling to Turkey this summer and did not want to spend a lot of money for language studies. I speak French, Spanish, and Mandarin. I have been working with a basic Pimsleur course and was having trouble with their inconsistent pronunciation. One example was the word for HELLO,
"Merhaba." It was first pronounced (after listening to the word numerous times) "MEER-hah-bah"...the vowell in the first syllable as a long "i" as in American dictionaries or "i" according to the International Phonetic Alphabet. Later on, on another CD I heard the word pronounded as "mehr-hah-bah." I continue to find inconsistancies and contrary to what Pimsleur says and its 5-star rating, I found this little book to be a treasure trove of insights into the Turkish Language and an excellent supplement to the Pimsleur course. This book was designed for those individuals who wish to learn basic Turkish and not long term study of the language. Lonley Planet has done a great job with this little book. Larry Tomaw