L’IMAGE comic series: Meryem’s story

Alt-Text with long description

 

COMIC

[Page 1, Title Page]

Upper left corner of page reads: UofT L’IMAGE Project: Language, Identity, Multiculturalism and Global Empowerment

Subtitle over light blue box: The lived experiences of real multilingual students at U of T

Title over bright red box: Meryem’s story**

Under the title banners, the character Meryem smiles at the readers. Her skin tone is medium-tan, and she has dark, black-ish eyes, and is wearing a dark purple hijab and a muted teal striped top.  

Bottom left corner of page shows the University of Toronto logo.

Bottom right footnote: **Some stories in the L’IMAGE comic series employ pseudonyms at the request of the featured student.

 

[Long description of text and images in the comic strip:

The comic strips in the L’IMAGE comic series uses the font Ames, which is the standard font for comics. Ames is an all-caps font. However, Alt-Texts for this project are not written in all-caps so that they will be more accessible for screen readers.

The comic artist for the series is Dr. Ai Taniguchi. Her drawing style can be described as: Japanese manga inspired, cute, large eyes, intentionally sketchy and unpolished line art, simplified, expressive. The comic strips are all digital, but she uses a pen that mimics the line weight of a traditional fountain pen. Her line art is on average 0.5mm in width (relatively thin), but the line weight varies and looks hand-drawn.

The title page of each comic strip is in color. It has a University of Toronto color scheme: navy blue, light blue, and bright red. The background is white with a navy blue frame. The references and acknowledgements page and the “About the L’IMAGE project” page also have this University of Toronto color scheme.

The comic strips themselves are black and white, and employ digital screen tones for shading and backgrounds.]

 

[Page 2]

Top panel: Meryem is waving with her right hand, smiling at the reader with her mouth slightly open.

Meryem’s narration: “My name is Meryem! I am a first-year student at UofT.”

Bottom panel: Meryem has her hands on her either side, and is smiling.

Meryem’s narration: “I am a Canadian student of Turkish origin. I speak Turkish, Turkmen, Russian, and English. I use Turkish and English the most here in Canada.”

Hand-written text in background: “To be more specific: Turkish parents, but born in Turkmenistan, moved to Turkey as a teen, then to Canada!”

 

[Page 3]

Top panel: Meryem is working on a laptop, with a slight smile, wearing rectangular glasses. There is a stack of three books next to the laptop.

Meryem’s narration: “I would say English feels global and academic to me. I’ve been using English since high school.”

Bottom panel: Side profile view of Meryem, with her eyes closed.

Meryem’s narration: “Although I would definitely describe Canada as being my “home”, the Turkish language is “home” to me too, since I speak it with my family.

 

[Page 4]

Top panel: To the left, Meryem is seen talking to another girl wearing a hijab. Text above this image reads: “Turkish with housemates!”

To the right, Meryem is seen talking to her three sisters – two of them are wearing a hijab, and one of them is not. The hijab-less sister has dark, shoulder-length hair.

Meryem’s narration: “Thankfully, it’s not hard to find a Turkish community in Toronto! Turkmen speakers are harder to find, so I mostly use it with my sisters.”

Bottom panel: To the left, a drawing of an airplane landing. To the right, a drawing of a plane crashing.

Meryem’s narration: “Turkmen and Turkish can be quite different! For example, (alt-text note: these are Turkish words written in the Turkish alphabet) “uçak düşdi/düştü”** means “the plane landed” in Turkmen, but in Turkish it means “the plane crashed”!

Foot note at bottom of panel: “**Note: It’s spelled “düşdi” in Turkmen, but it’s spelled “düştü” in Turkish; but they’re pronounced the same!

 

[Page 5]

Top panel: Meryem is at the center, with her gaze slightly off camera to her left. Four speech bubbles are coming out of her. Each of these speech bubbles have the name of the language she speaks, written in that language: Türkçe, türkmen dili, русский язык, English.

Meryem’s narration: “One of the advantages of being multilingual is how you come to appreciate different expressions in each of the languages you know.”

Bottom panel: Meryem has her hands in front of her, smiling at a janitor with short, dark hair. The janitor has a cart with cleaning equipment, and is holding a broom in their right hand.

Meryem’s narration: “One expression that is handy in Turkish is kolay gelsin! It literally means “may it come easy to you”. It’s something you say to someone who’s working, to wish to them that their work be easy.”

 

[Page 6]

Top panel: Meryem has a slightly troubled facial expression and a tear-drop shaped snot is coming out of her nose. She is wearing hijab, a winter coat, mittens, pants, and a winter scarf with the same stripes as the top she wore in other panels. There are two people seen in the background, ice skating in an ice skating rink. Meryem’s skates are not visible, but it can be inferred that she is skating.

Meryem’s narration: “There was one funny incident where my multilingualism was very useful. I was ice skating in Ankara, Turkey, and my nose was runny.”

Bottom panel: Meryem, on the left, is seen speaking to an extremely buff, square-faced white man with light hair, on the right. The buff dude is wearing a jacket that reads “Russia” in all caps on his chest. He looks a little grumpy. Snot is still coming out of Meryem’s nose.

Meryem’s narration: “I didn’t have anything to wipe my nose with, so I asked a Russian guy who was standing next to me if he had a napkin… in Turkish.”

Meryem’s speech bubble: (alt-text note: this is written in the Turkish alphabet) “peçeteniz var mı? (Do you have a napkin?)”

Buff Russian dude’s speech bubble: “No Turkish sorry”

Meryem’s narration: “He responded in English saying he didn’t understand, so…”

 

[Page 7]

Top panel: Meryem is still talking to the buff Russian dude. Meryem looks slightly more annoyed than in the previous panel. There is still snot coming out of her nose. The Russian dude is looking up, averting his eyes from Meryem as if annoyed.

Meryem’s narration: “Do I asked the same thing… in English this time.”

Meryem’s speech bubble: “Do you have a napkin?”

Russian dude’s speech bubble: “No English.”

Meryem’s narration: “He still claimed to not understand! lol”

Bottom panel: Meryem is still talking to the buff Russian dude. She looks slightly angrier, although readable as determined rather than annoyed. There is still snot coming out of her nose. The Russian dude’s mouth is agape, his eyes are wide open staring at Meryem, and he looks horrified.

Meryem’s narration: “So then I asked the same thing again.. in Russian (laughing crying face)”

Meryem’s speech bubble: “(alt-text note: this is Russian Cyrillic script) салфетка есть? (Do you have a napkin?”

Russian dude’s speech bubble: “(alt-text note: this is Russian Cyrillic script) нет… (no…)”

Meryem’s narration: “He was absolutely shocked!! (He told me in Russian he had no napkin LOL)”

 

[Page 8]

Top panel: A white dude (not buff) is on the right smiling, talking to Meryem, on the left. He is seen saying, “You speak Arabic?” Meryem is staring at the dude, eyes slightly squinting with suspicion and annoyance. She is seen saying, “…no”.

Meryem’s narration: “One struggle that I have is that people often assume certain things about me because of the way I look.”

Bottom panel: A Black guy, Meryem, and possibly an East Asian girl are all smiling towards the reader.

Meryem’s narration: “What I want to tell people through my story is that being Canadian doesn’t have just one look. I belong here, too.”

 

[Page 9]

Full panel: Meryem is seen smiling at the reader, with her head turned slightly to her right and her mouth closed, with an air of confidence and grace. Her arms are crossed.

Meryem’s narration: “My name is Meryem. This is my story. These are my languages. This is me.”

[Page 10]

Page title: Help victims of earthquake in southern Turkey and Syria

If you are able to, please consider donating to help with the urgent needs of the people of Turkey and Syria after the devastating earthquake on February 6, 2023.

Donate here:

https://www.embracerelief.org/donation/help-victims-of-earthquake-in-sourthern-turkey

A QR code is seen under the link.

 

[Page 11]

Page title: About the L’IMAGE project

Project PI and comic artist: Ai Taniguchi, Assistant Professor, UTM Department of Language Studies

Research Assistant: Haili Su, MA Student, UTSG Department of Linguistics

Special thanks to: Gilbert Lin, Assistant Director, Intercultural & Global Initiatives, UTM International Education Centre

With the generous support of: UofT International Student Experience Fund, UTM Department of Language Studies, UTM International Education Centre

Learn more: http://www.lingcomics.com

Bottom right of page shows the University of Toronto Mississauga logo and the University of Toronto logo.

 

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INFOGRAPHIC

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[Page 1]

Subtitle: Five-minute linguistics with L’IMAGE Aji!

Main title, over red banner: Turkish

Turkish is spoken as a first language by ~80 million worldwide, with a large concentration of speakers in the Anatolian and Balkan region of southeastern Europe and west Asia. It is the sole official language of Turkey, and one of the official languages of Cyprus. It also has official status in 38 municipalities in Kosovo, in 2 municipalities in the Republic of North Macedonia, and in Kirkuk Governorate in northern Iraq.

 

Turkish is the most widely spoken language in the Turkic language family. Other languages in the Turkic family include: Turkmen, Azerbaijani, Qashqai, Khalaj, Crimean Tatar, Bashkir, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Uyghur, Yakut, Tuvan, Chulym, Western Yugur, Chuvash, and many more.

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Cartoon image of “L’IMAGE Aji,” the project mascot, is seen smiling in bottom right of the page.

L’IMAGE Aji speech bubble: “We’ll learn about Uzbek in another L’IMAGE story!”

 

[Long description of infographic pages:

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Each page of the infographic is in color. It has a University of Toronto color scheme: navy blue, light blue, and bright red.

 

L’IMAGE Aji is a fish character drawn in a style reminiscent of Sanrio characters like Hello Kitty. It is generally round in its silhouette and features. It has a pastel blue body with a yellow stripe, white belly, and yellow fins. It has two round eyes and round, pink blush on the cheeks, with a cat-like smiling mouth. There are bubbles coming out above it.]

 

[Page 2]

Modern standardized Turkish is based on the dialect spoken in Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey.

In the Balkans we can find various varieties of Turkish spoken in e.g., Bulgaria where there is a large concentration of Turkish speakers.

In the Anatolia region, Turkish dialects can be largely divided into western, eastern, and northeastern groups, with a considerable amount of regional variation within each group.

A hand-drawn map of the Balkan region and the Anatolia region is seen under the text.

An average North American reader with the world geography knowledge of a high schooler might recognize the boot shape country to the west of the Balkan region, extending into the Mediterranean sea: Italy.

L’IMAGE Aji is seen smiling in the bottom left, pointing to the map.

[Map long description: The country of Turkey is labeld and colored in yellow. The western half of Turkey (the portion that is a peninsula) is the Anatolia region. To the north of Turkey, the Black Sea is seen and labeled. To the west of the Black Sea is the Balkan region, a kind of an inverted trapezoid shaped region extending south into the Mediterranean Sea. About ten distinct regions, probably countries, can be seen in the Balkan region. The southeast tip of the Balkan region is also colored in yellow, indicating that it is a part of Turkey. The very tip of this Balakan region of Turkey is Istanbul, indicated with a red dot on the map. Just above this Turkey region in the Balkan region is Bulgaria, which is labeled on the map. Borders of other countries are seen, but other countries are not labeled. Looking at the map as a whole, most of Turkey is essentially a peninsula in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. ]

 

[Page 3]

 The western and eastern Anatolian dialects are roughly to the west and east of the Euphrates, and the northeastern Anatolian dialects are spoken along the Eastern Black Sea coast (e.g., Trabzon)!

A zoomed in map of just Turkey the country is seen, with the Black Sea to its north and the Mediterranean Sea to the south.

L'IMAGE Aji is seen smiling, to the right of the map.

L’IMAGE Aji speech bubble: “One major difference between the various Anatolian Turkish dialects is what the present tense suffix is. In standardized (Istanbul) Turkish it’s -(i)yo(r). In most of west and central Anatolia, it’s -(i)yo, and a lot of dialects further east have -(i)yi(r)! Along the Black Sea coast, -(i)yu(r) and -(i)yė(r) can be found too.”

 

Red text box to the left of the speech bubble:

 

• Istanbul dialect: gel-iyor-um (come -present tense -1st Person Singular)

• Anatolian dialect: gel-iyo-m (come -present tense - 1st Person Singular)

 

 

[Map long description: Istanbul in the Balkan tip region is marked with a dot. Ankara, the capital of Turkey, is marked with a star in roughly the center of the Anataolian region. To the east ot Ankara, Y-shaped Euphrates River can be seen, roughly splitting Turkey into the western half and the eastern half. To the north of the Euphrates, along the Black Sea coast, we can see Trabzon, marked with a dot. To the southeast of the Euphrates, we see Diyarbakir marked with a dot.]

 

 

[Page 3]

Modern Turkish uses a Latin-based alphabet for writing. The Turkish alphabet consists of 29 letters:

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[Alt-text note: these are Turkish alphabet letters]

A a

B b

C c

Ç ç

D d

E e

F f

G g

Ğ ğ  

H h

I ı

İ i

J j

K k

L l

M m

N n

O o

Ö ö

P p

R r

S s

Ş ş

T t

U u

Ü ü

V v

Y y

Z z

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[Long description of Turkish alphabet: The Turkish alphabet will look mostly familiar to an English speaker, since it uses the same Latin alphabet. Latin alphabets are impressionistically simple with usually one, two, or three strokes. Some letters are round (like the letter O, which is a ring shape) or otherwise have a curve (like the letter C, which is almost like a ring, but with an opening on the right side). Some letters are composed of just straight lines, like the letter T (a vertical line with a horizontal line on top of it). Some letters are a combination of curves and straight lines, like the letter G (which looks like the letter C, but with a short, horizontal straight line at the bottom of the opening). Some Turkish letters have two dots over them, like Ü, which is a U shape (like a C but the opening facing upwards), with two dots over the opening. The most distinct letter in Turkish may be Ğ, which is like the letter G, but with a tiny U over it. Turkish also has a C with a little tail at the bottom. End long description]

 

The following chart shows how each vowel letter is pronounced in Turkish.

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[Alt-text note: The first column employs the Turkish alphabet. The second column employs symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet.]

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A table with 9 rows and 3 columns.

Row 1: Turkish alphabet, International Phonetic Alphabet, English comparison.

Row 2: A a, /a/, father

Row 3: E e, /e/, hey

Row 4: I I, /ɯ/, Say “hoot”, but relax your lips and make them unrounded

Row 5: İ i, /i/, heat

Row 6: O o, /o/, hose

Row 7: Ö ö, /ø/, Say “hey”, but round your lips (In French: peu)

Row 8: U u, /u/, hoot

Row 9: Ü ü, /y/, Like ew (lips rounded); (in French: tu)

 

L’IMAGE Aji is seen at the bottom right corner of page.

L’IMAGE Aji speech bubble: “Here’s how the vowels are pronounced!”

 

[Page 4]

Turkish vowels can be largely divided into four categories: Front unround, front round, back unround, and back round.

Front vowels are vowels that are pronounced with your tongue far forward inside your mouth. Back vowels are pronounced with your tongue positioned relatively farther back in your mouth. If you say “he” (front vowel [i]) and “who” (back vowel [u]) back and forth, you can feel the difference in the position of your tongue!

When you stick your lips out as if you’re kissing, that’s called rounding. If you say “he” (unrounded [i]) and “who” (rounded [u]) back and forth, you should also be able to feel that [u] is rounded, and [i] is not.

A chart of Turkish vowels.

Front vowels, unround: İ i  /i/, E e /e/

Front vowels, round:  Ü ü  /y/, Ö ö /ø/

Back vowels, unround:   I ı  /ɯ/, A a  /a/

Back vowels, round:  U u /u/,  O o  /o/

 

L’IMAGE Aji is seen at the bottom right corner of page. It looks like it’s kissing you.

L’IMAGE Aji speech bubble: “Look, I’m rounding my lips!”

 

[Page 5]

[Alt-text note: this page employs the International Phonetic Alphabet and the Turkish alphabet]

Turkish has a suffix that turns adjectives into nouns (sort of like -ness or -dom in English). There are four different forms of this suffix: -lik, -lık, -luk, -lük!

ince /ind͡ʒe/ ‘thin’ becomes ince-lik  [ind͡ʒelik] ‘thinness’

özgür ‘free’ /øzgyr/ becomes özgür-lük [øzgyrlyk] ‘freedom’

tatlı /tatlɯ/ ‘sweet’ becomes tatlı-lık [tatlɯlɯk] ‘sweetness’

doğru /do:ru/ ‘correct’ becomes  doğru-luk [do:ruluk] ‘correctness’

 

How do you determine which of the four forms to use? This depends on what kind of vowels are found in the root noun!

 

L’IMAGE Aji is seen at the bottom right corner of page.

L’IMAGE Aji speech bubble: “Can you tell what the pattern is?”

 

[Page 6]

ince /ind͡ʒe/ ‘thin’ becomes ince-lik  [ind͡ʒelik] ‘thinness’

özgür ‘free’ /øzgyr/ becomes özgür-lük [øzgyrlyk] ‘freedom’

 

tatlı /tatlɯ/ ‘sweet’ becomes tatlı-lık [tatlɯlɯk] ‘sweetness’

doğru /do:ru/ ‘correct’ becomes  doğru-luk [do:ruluk] ‘correctness’

 

There is a phonological rule called vowel harmony in Turkish. This means that all vowels in a word must match in their quality. In the case of Turkish, the vowels must match in terms of their backness and rounding.

For example, you’ll notice that the adjective ince /ind͡ʒe/ ‘thin’ contains /i/ and /e/, which are both front and unround. This is why the nominalizing suffix has to be -lik [lik] for it: [lik] also contains a front unround vowel.

doğru /do:ru/ ‘correct’ contains /o/ and /u/ --- both back round vowels --- hence, the suffix used is -luk [luk] to match them!

 

L’IMAGE Aji is seen at the bottom right corner of page.

L’IMAGE Aji speech bubble: Vowel harmony is a general rule in Turkish --- not limited to the nominalizing suffix!

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[Page 7]

References

Johanson, L., & Csató, É. Į. (2015). The Turkic Languages. Routledge.

Johanson, L. (2020). The classification of the Turkic languages. In M. Robbeets & A. Savelyev (Eds.), The Oxford Guide to the Transeurasian Languages (pp.105-114). Oxford Academic.

Kabak, B. (2011). Turkish vowel harmony. The Blackwell Companion to Phonology, 1-24.

Yenisoy, H. S. (2015). On the Turkish dialects in Bulgaria and their Bulgarian loanword. SocioBrains, 7, 28-41.

 

Learn more

Langfocus on Youtube (try searching “Langfocus Turkish”!):

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=langfocus+turkish

 

Acknowledgement

Expert Consultant**

Lara Russo

PhD Student, Department of Cognitive Science

Carleton University

**Errors, if any, are the PI’s oversight.

 

 

[Page 8]

Page title: About the L’IMAGE project 

Project PI and comic artist: Ai Taniguchi, Assistant Professor, UTM Department of Language Studies 

Research Assistant: Haili Su, MA Student, UTSG Department of Linguistics 

Special thanks to: Gilbert Lin, Assistant Director, Intercultural & Global Initiatives, UTM International Education Centre 

With the generous support of: UofT International Student Experience Fund, UTM Department of Language Studies, UTM International Education Centre 

Learn more: http://www.lingcomics.com 

Bottom right of page shows the University of Toronto Mississauga logo and the University of Toronto logo.