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Modifiers in Detail

How the glottal stop, acute accent, and diaeresis marks change sound without adding new letters.

Four modifier marks sit beside base vowels; they are small on the page but loud in real speech.

Modifiers are partners, not exceptions

A modifier changes the vowel next to it; the spelling still uses familiar base letters.

The four modifier marks

The glottal stop marks a crisp throat closure after a vowel.

mefeḱu'

Thursday

Glottal stop after k in a common word.

The acute accent on a lengthens the vowel quality.

ğoáne

hole

Acute a in a word with ğ.

Diaeresis marks on u and ö front and round the vowel.

ujü

thick

Front rounded ü in a short word.

mijö

stone

Front rounded ö in a short word.

Hear the change in context

Play the example words slowly, then read the same syllable without the modifier to feel the contrast.

yişö wiśışü

its color is green

Front rounded vowels in a short sentence.

ğogu' çıje

a long (far) road

Glottal stop in a short sentence.

Which modifier marks a glottal stop?

The apostrophe-like mark after a vowel.

Practice paths

Mission 2 introduces the four modifiers; Arena speed and fill-in games reuse them for recognition drills.