Correct pronunciation of merhaba
This is a super simple question but I feel I'm increasingly befuddled by it these days.

When I traveled to Turkey, what I remembered was that it was pronounced like ['merhaba], ie the accentuation is at the beginning of the word.

However last year I went to Uzbekistan and seems that people pronounced it like [mer'haba], namely the accentuation is right before "haba".

I wonder if this is purely a matter of accent, and the "correct" way of pronouncing it in Turkish is indeed ['merhaba] (the first one)?

Thanks,
Yijun

Question

Correct pronunciation of merhaba
This is a super simple question but I feel I'm increasingly befuddled by it these days.

When I traveled to Turkey, what I remembered was that it was pronounced like ['merhaba], ie the accentuation is at the beginning of the word.

However last year I went to Uzbekistan and seems that people pronounced it like [mer'haba], namely the accentuation is right before "haba".

I wonder if this is purely a matter of accent, and the "correct" way of pronouncing it in Turkish is indeed ['merhaba] (the first one)?

Thanks,
Yijun

Answer

Yes, It's a matter of accent. The correct way of pronouncing it in Turkish is the first one :)

Answer

thanks Gökhan! following this path, would you mind me asking another question regarding pronunciation? How do you properly pronounce "ğ"? Like, in words like "ağa", "sağa",  "ineği", "Beyoğlu"? Based on my personal observation seems that it doesn't pronounce?

Answer

The reason that 'h' drop is probably because it's right after a consonant.  My name is Gökhan but almost everyone call me like Gökan, dropping the 'h' sound.

Answer

Thank you Sophie for this detailed answer! It helps a lot!

Answer

In formal cases Turkish people tend to pronounce the "h", so it would be pronounced as /merhaba/ (the "h" is very soft though!)

In informal cases, or when talking fast people almost always drop the "h", so it sounds like /meraba/

In both cases the stress is on the first syllable of the word but it is very soft & quick.

Hope this helped! As a native speaker when talking to friends & family and even at a bit more "formal" cases(like at a restaurant or store) I would drop the "h" off.