User talk:StuartJames

Suffix -i in Turkish
Greetings. I'm afraid it's a bit more complicated than what you put on the Talk:Istanbul page. There are (at least) three uses of this suffix. One is (as described by Kutlu Akalin) to denote the direct object -- when it is definite: Eti yedim = I ate the meat (whereas Et yedim = I have eaten meat). This is normal everyday Turkish. A second is the Turkish possessive: Türkiye'nin tarihi = The history of Turkey. This too is standard everyday Turkish. This possessive suffix is also used in forming "compound nouns": Güvenlik Konseyi = Security Council. Finally — this is probably what you had in mind — there is the Persian possessive, which was standard fare in Ottoman Turkish but survives in present Turkish only in some set phrases: Devlet-i Osmaniye = The state of Osmania. This is just the other way around than the Turkish possessive, in which the possessee follows the possessor. It is generally written with a hyphen. Hope this helps to clarify this confusing issue. Lambiam 10:00, 6 February 2006 (UTC)