evvela

evvela

Turkish

Etymology

Inherited from Ottoman Turkish اولا‎‎ (evvela, “firstly, in the first place”)[1], derived from Arabic أَوَّلًا‎ (ʾawwalan), adverbial accusative of أَوَّل‎ (ʾawwal, “first”), with loss of the nunation, resulting in evvela instead of expected *evvelen, with pronunciation of final /aː/ instead of /en/ (compare Turkish mesela, for Arabic مَثَلًا‎ (maṯalan), or mutlaka, for Arabic مُطْلَقًا‎ (muṭlaqan)). By surface analysis, evvel (“first”) +‎ -an (adverbial suffix).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈeβ.βe.laː/
• Hyphenation: ev‧ve‧la

Adverb

evvela

1. firstly, in the first place, first of all

   Synonyms: önce, ilk önce, öncelikle, ilkin

References

1. Redhouse, James W. (1890), “اولا‎”, in A Turkish and English Lexicon, Constantinople: A. H. Boyajian, page 265

Further reading

• evvela in Turkish dictionaries at Türk Dil Kurumu
• Nişanyan, Sevan (2002–), “evvel”, in Nişanyan Sözlük