# Wikipedia states that the Turkish language only uses I in loanwords. Is this true? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 26, 2023, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wikipedia-states-that-the-turkish-language-only-uses-i-in-loanwords-is-this-true/990707 "2023-09-26T05:46:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jagraze1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jagraze1/32/14870_2.png) [@Jagraze1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jagraze1)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2023, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wikipedia-states-that-the-turkish-language-only-uses-i-in-loanwords-is-this-true/990707/1 "2023-09-26T05:46:08Z")
Here is a quote from wikipedia? The letters [I](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I), [Q](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q), [W](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W), and [X](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X) of the [ISO basic Latin alphabet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_basic_Latin_alphabet) do not occur in native Turkish words and nativised loanwords and are normally not considered to be letters of the Turkish alphabet (replacements for these letters are _[İ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%B0)_ , _[K](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K)_ , _[V](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V)_ and _KS_ ). However, these letters are increasingly used in more recent loanwords and derivations thereof such as _tweetlemek_ and [proper names](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proper_noun_and_common_noun) like _Washington_ . I is generally considered a foreign [allograph](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allograph) of İ that’s only used in borrowings. Q and X have commonly accepted Turkish names, while W is usually referred to by its English name _double u_ , its French name _double vé_ , or rarely the Turkish calque of the latter, _çift ve_ , which is recommended by [Turkish Language Association](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_Language_Association). > **[Turkish alphabet | Letters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_alphabet#Letters)** > > The following table presents the Turkish letters, the sounds they correspond to in International Phonetic Alphabet and how these can be approximated more or less by an English speaker. Is this really true since I seems like a common letter in Turkish? Am I missing something? ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2023, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wikipedia-states-that-the-turkish-language-only-uses-i-in-loanwords-is-this-true/990707/2 "2023-09-26T08:11:40Z")
Why, exactly, do you doubt the information there? And how familiar are you with the Turkish language? ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2023, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wikipedia-states-that-the-turkish-language-only-uses-i-in-loanwords-is-this-true/990707/3 "2023-09-26T08:46:37Z")
In fact Turkish has two distinct vowels i (front) and ı (back), and both occur in various loanwords. ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2023, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wikipedia-states-that-the-turkish-language-only-uses-i-in-loanwords-is-this-true/990707/4 "2023-09-26T09:46:49Z")
And it must be taken into account that in Turkish **I** is not capital **i** but capital **ı** ( **İ** is capital **i** ) ---
**Author:** ![Jagraze1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jagraze1/32/14870_2.png) [@Jagraze1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jagraze1)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2023, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wikipedia-states-that-the-turkish-language-only-uses-i-in-loanwords-is-this-true/990707/5 "2023-09-26T12:14:59Z")
I seems like a common letter in Turkish but wiki states the opposite ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2023, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wikipedia-states-that-the-turkish-language-only-uses-i-in-loanwords-is-this-true/990707/6 "2023-09-26T18:09:24Z")
**İ** is the third most frequent letter in Turkish, and **I** is the seventh most common. They are both super common. ---
**Author:** ![Jagraze1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jagraze1/32/14870_2.png) [@Jagraze1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jagraze1)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2023, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wikipedia-states-that-the-turkish-language-only-uses-i-in-loanwords-is-this-true/990707/7 "2023-09-26T18:11:21Z")
Then why does wiki state that it’s only used in loanwords? ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2023, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wikipedia-states-that-the-turkish-language-only-uses-i-in-loanwords-is-this-true/990707/8 "2023-09-26T18:15:42Z")
You quoted something about the “ISO basic Latin alphabet”, so that seems like a question of computer character-set encoding, which is perhaps an interesting subject but has nothing to do with letter frequency in Turkish. ETA I suppose one could imagine a foreign word that really uses a Latin “i”, “I” in majuscule; in that case you could consider that variant of I as not in the normal Turkish alphabet at all. Also, raw foreign words would not conform to Turkish vowel harmony, and indeed may contain consonants and vowels that do not occur in Turkish at all. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2023, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wikipedia-states-that-the-turkish-language-only-uses-i-in-loanwords-is-this-true/990707/9 "2023-09-26T20:22:10Z")
Place names aren’t likely to be loan words. Kuşadası Izmir Istanbul Türkiye… j ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2023, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wikipedia-states-that-the-turkish-language-only-uses-i-in-loanwords-is-this-true/990707/10 "2023-09-26T21:07:10Z")
The footnote is a little unclear, but: Turkish indeed has the letter I which has a lowercase ı Turkish indeed has the letter İ which has a lowercase i Turkish does not _commonly_ have the _Latin_ letter I which has a lowercase as i. If you used the Turkish equivalent, the pronunciation would change depending on where the letter occurs in a word. And that is not the case, Turkish does not change the pronunciation based upon capitalization. Similarly, Đ and Ð look the same right (maybe depending on font)? In fact, if you copy and paste those, they’re actually different. The former is lowercase đ, the latter lowercase ð. But you might not care unless you’re Croatian or Icelandic. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2023, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wikipedia-states-that-the-turkish-language-only-uses-i-in-loanwords-is-this-true/990707/11 "2023-09-26T21:48:27Z")
Yes, what you’re missing is that there are three different letters that look very similar. Two are common in Turkish but do not exist in, say, English. The third is common in English but not in Turkish.