Turkish grammar · A1 · Lesson 8 of 29
Turkish Nationalities and Languages: -li, -ce
Ülke, Milliyet ve Dil Adları (-li, -ce)
Saying where you are from and what you speak: Mısırlıyım, Arapça
One country gives you three words: the place (Türkiye), the person (Türk) and the language (Türkçe). Two small endings do most of the work.
-li on a country or a city means from there: Mısırlı (from Egypt, Egyptian), İstanbullu (from İstanbul). Its vowel follows four-way harmony: Iraklı, Suriyeli, İstanbullu, Ürdünlü. The question is Nerelisin? and the answer takes the copula: Suriyeliyim.
-ce makes the language. It usually goes on the people’s name (Alman → Almanca), sometimes on the country’s (Kore → Korece), and its c hardens to ç after a hard consonant: Arapça, Türkçe.
Examples
Ben Halepliyim, ev arkadaşım Şamlı.
I am from Aleppo; my flatmate is from Damascus.
Bu kitap Arapça, yazarı Faslı.
This book is in Arabic; its author is Moroccan.
Kardeşim Almanca öğreniyor.
My brother is learning German.