# Turkish Finite-State Syllabifier

> A C# Turkish syllabifier that projects words onto vowel/consonant patterns and emits syllables through a 20-state table-driven finite-state transducer in linear time.

- Author: Muhammet Ali Köker
- Language: en
- Canonical: https://alikoker.com.tr/en/turkish-finite-state-syllabifier
- Translation: https://alikoker.com.tr/turkish-finite-state-syllabifier
- Published: 2022-12-01T12:00:00+03:00
- Modified: 2026-08-27T10:36:29+03:00
- Verified: 2026-08-27T10:36:29+03:00
- Type: project

I keep this repository separate from generic text utilities because its executable structure mirrors a formal model. A Turkish word is first projected onto a two-symbol alphabet: vowels become `A`, consonants become `B`. A 20-state table-driven machine then consumes that sequence from left to right and, when a transition requires it, identifies the corresponding slice of the original word to emit as a syllable.

Calling it only a DFA misses part of the behaviour. The transition also produces output, so a finite-state transducer is the more useful description. There is no dictionary lookup, regex engine or backtracking path; time grows linearly with the input length and the automaton state remains fixed-size. The scope is intentionally narrower than morphology: foreign forms and every orthographic exception are not claimed to be solved by the model.

Approximate phonetic indexing is handled elsewhere. [Turkish Numeric Soundex](/en/turkish-numeric-soundex) groups candidates by a compact phonetic key instead of attempting syllable boundaries.

Formal and implementation notes: [Finite-State Turkish Syllabification Algorithm](/en/finite-state-turkish-syllabification-algorithm)  
Repository: [GitHub](https://github.com/alikoker/turkish-finite-state-syllabifier)  
Zenodo record: [Zenodo](https://zenodo.org/records/22117422)  
DOI: [DOI](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22117422)

## Cite This Work

Köker, M. A. (2022). Turkish Finite-State Syllabifier. alikoker.com.tr. https://alikoker.com.tr/en/turkish-finite-state-syllabifier

- BibTeX: https://alikoker.com.tr/en/turkish-finite-state-syllabifier.bib
- RIS: https://alikoker.com.tr/en/turkish-finite-state-syllabifier.ris
- CSL-JSON: https://alikoker.com.tr/en/turkish-finite-state-syllabifier.csl.json