How French (and Not English) Continues Shaping Turkish Writing

Modelled on Western-European languages, the current punctuation system used in Turkish does not fit as snugly upon its non-Western syntactic structure. With its writing system having been Latinized, mainly due to the French influence, Turkish adopted many of the French (as well as some German and English) punctuation conventions.

Stylistic Preference of Juxtaposing▾

Conjunctions are not “native” to Turkish: The genuine Turkish way to link elements in a sentence is to simply place them side by side, i.e., to juxtapose them, without using any connectives.

Both French and Turkish have a strong preference for linking sentence constituents by merely juxtaposing them without using any conjunctions (and, or). In literary critique, such clause-linking is referred to as asyndetic parataxis (meaning, linking of equal, parallel items without any conjunctions).

English, on the other hand, strongly favors coordination, by using a coordinating conjunction (and, or) to connect equal, parallel items, including before the last item in a pair (2) or a series (3+) of such items. As a technique, the style of linking with a conjunction is called syndetic parataxis:

No Oxford Comma▾

In all three languages, three or more juxtaposed elements, referred to as a series, are separated by a comma. A coordinating conjunction (and, or) is often added before the last item in the series.

However, in English, especially in its U.S. variety, such an added conjunction in a series of three or more items is also preceded with a comma (known as an Oxford comma). Neither French nor Turkish ever use the Oxford comma:

Stylistic Preference of Polysyndetic Series (Repeated Conjunctions)▾

A series that uses the same conjunction to connect each pair of the items in the series is called polysyndetic. Although rarely used in English, polysyndetic linking is very common in both French and Turkish.

Polysyndetic series are usually translated into English as correlative series linked with paired coordinating conjunctions, which do not take commas unless the correlated items are clauses:

According to the Turkish language authority, TDK, polysyndetic series should not be separated with commas; however, numerous examples in Turkish literature, journalism, and academic papers prove otherwise.

Using a Comma Between Juxtaposed Independent Clauses ▾

If any two independent clauses are merely juxtaposed without a coordinating conjunction in a compound sentence (sıralı cümle), a comma would be sufficient to link them in both French and Turkish. For English, however, a comma would be too weak, and a semicolon must be used:

Comma + Conjunctive Adverb (Transitional Connective) Between Juxtaposed Clauses▾

In English, the semicolon-based linking between juxtaposed independent clauses may be additionally strengthened (but not replaced) by a logically appropriate transitional phrase (or a conjunctive adverb): e.g., therefore, however, thus, nevertheless, etc.

As a modifier of the entire clause, an English conjunctive adverb is understood as syntactically peripheral to the structure of the clause. A conjunctive adverb notwithstanding, the two independent clauses must be linked with a semicolon, with the conjunctive adverb signaled and emphasized with enclosing comma(s).

On the other hand, any French or Turkish compound clauses with an added transitional donc/ alors or o yüzden/ onun için, respectively, retain the comma that would normally link the two independent clauses. No other punctuation mark is needed to emphasize the connective:

Rhetorical or Focusing Adverbs (Emphatic Device)▾

Compound sentences may also have a rhetorical adverb, such as even or especially, added for special emphasis, which does not affect the conventional punctuation.

Ellipsis (Ellipsis Points) Used to Mean “Et Cetera”▾

Both Turkish and French have a penchant for the liberal use of ellipsis, not least because of the technical and academic use of this punctuation mark to convey the notion of et cetera in the end of lists of items. In English, in technical and academic literature, an ellipsis (or ellipsis points) is mainly used to signal an omission in a quotation.

🚩 The English equivalent of the corresponding French or Turkish ellipsis is the term and so on (and so forth), abbreviated as etc. (et cetera). Keep in mind that the traditional use of the abbreviated form etc. is somewhat informal, limited to technical and academic papers (in lists in tables, notes, and within parentheses), and expedient documents (such as business forms, catalogs, routine email messages, memos, and letters between business offices). As other abbreviations, etc. should be used sparingly in general prose—and only with incomplete lists of things (not people).

Ellipsis (Suspension Points) Used to Mean a Break or Interruption in Speech▾

In French and Turkish fiction, an ellipsis (or suspension points) is used to indicate an interrupted speech in an exchange. In English literature, however, the appropriate choice is a dash:

💥 English differentiates between speech interrupted by someone other than the speaker and self-interrupted speech, expressed as a hesitation, faltering, trailing off, or stuttering speech, in which case it is indicated by an ellipsis as well.

Ellipsis (Suspension Points) Used to Signal a Surprising or Dramatic Turn (Often Humorous)▾

An ellipsis (suspension points) can also be used to indicate an unexpected or surprising break in the narration for a dramatic or humorous effect. Again, a dash is preferred in English:

Notice the placement of the dash before the conjunction and in the English sentence to prevent misreading the break as an interruption.

Common Use of Fragmented Sentences▾

The use of the so-called sentence fragments (sentences lacking a subject or a verb) to achieve a stylistic effect occurs relatively infrequently in English. In contrast, both French and Turkish are much more tolerant towards sentence fragmentation:

Dismissing Appositive Lists Grammatically▾

An appositive list contains a series of items summarized by a principal word (principal summarizer) that follows or precedes the list. The series may be syndetic, asyndetic, or polysyndetic. Although such a construction is semantically warranted, French does not always distinguish it grammatically. For example:

In this example, the punctuation pattern suggests that the initially listed items form a series: un souffle, une ombre, and un rien, even though they clearly do not. In fact, the latter, un rien, is the principal of the preceding appositive list.

In English, such a sentence would be furnished with a dash separating the principal summarizer from the preceding list:

Other examples of principal summarizers include such, these, they, all, everywhere, etc. (underlined below ).

Yet, in another French sentence, an appositive list is recognized but separated by a colon (the so-called listing colon) that follows the list (rather than by a dash, as it would be in English):

In the standard use of the listing colon, the colon precedes the related appositive list:

Just like French, Turkish does not distinguish between principal summarizers and related appositive lists, separating them as part of a single series, or not separating them at all—as, for example, in the first sentence of Article 8 of the Turkish Law on National Education (Milli Eğitim Temel Kanunu):

Using Dashes for Dialogues▾

In both French and Turkish, in direct discourse (conversation), opening quotation marks (used in English) are replaced by em dashes (always spaced at least a hair), with no closing quotation marks needed (unless the dialogue is part of a larger quotation):

Using Hyphen to Indicate Ranges of Numbers, Dates, Pages▾

In Turkish, as in French, a hyphen is used to connect continuing or inclusive numbers (dates, times, reference numbers, page ranges, etc.).

In English, however, a special punctuation mark, en dash, is used to indicate ranges and spans of numerals. En dash is typed as Ctrl + – (minus on Num Lock):

Formatting Individual Last Names in Uppercase▾

Turkish has adopted the French style of formatting people’s last names (as well as names of cities/ countries), mainly in official documents and academic papers (particularly in headings and signatures), by writing them all in caps, as opposed to the English title case-type capitalization (capitalizing each word).

Using a Decimal Comma in Numerals▾

Numerals are formatted in a similar fashion in both French and Turkish, with a decimal comma instead of a decimal point, as it is in English:

German: Using Period (Full Stop) After Numerals to Indicate Ordinal Numbers▾

Apart from French, German has also had some influence on the Turkish writing conventions, specifically, in relation to formatting ordinal numbers: A period (full stop) after a numeral shows that it represents an ordinal number.

Moreover, in German, this convention is also used for days of the month, which could be the reason why dates in Turkish (as well as in English) may be written with periods: