Dep aıtty and ekenin: how to retell words and thoughts
News is always somebody else's speech: "it was reported that", "he stated that", "it turned out that". Wave 2 showed "dep" in one line; here the whole mechanism is taken apart, because in Kazakh there is no "that"-clause at all, and there are two ways around it — not interchangeable. For example: “Журналист рейс тоқтатылды деп хабарлады” — The journalist reported that the flight was cancelled. A rule from the Kazakh…
How it works
News is always somebody else's speech: "it was reported that", "he stated that", "it turned out that". Wave 2 showed "dep" in one line; here the whole mechanism is taken apart, because in Kazakh there is no "that"-clause at all, and there are two ways around it — not interchangeable.
Way one — dep, the adverbial form of deu (to say). The order is the reverse of English: the words themselves, then "dep", then the verb of speech. Erteñ kelemin dep aıtty — he said he would come tomorrow. And here is the crux everyone stumbles over: the person inside the quote does not change. Kazakh quotes verbatim, so kelemin stays first person, although English renders it as "he would come". Rebuilding kelemin into keledi would produce a different phrase, as if he had been speaking about somebody else. Through dep passes not only speech: dep oilaimyn — I think that; dep estidim — I heard that; dep ümittenemin — I hope that.
Way two — fold the other person's thought into a noun, and this is properly Kazakh. The verb of the clause becomes a participle and takes a possessive tail plus a case: onyñ kelgenin bilemın — I know that he came, word for word "his coming I know". English does the same inside out in "I know of his coming". For a nominal predicate there is eken: duryş ekenin tüsindim — I understood that it is correct; bos ekenin aıtty — he said that it was free. This form is obligatory after the verbs of knowing and understanding — bilu, tüsinu, estu, körü, aitu — and dep with them sounds clumsy.
And third, the thing no phrasebook knows. Eken on its own is a marker that the information is not yours: ol Astanauda eken — it turns out he is in Astana (I have just learned it). In the news this word stands at every step. A question inside a retelling is assembled the same way: the question word stays, the verb goes into a participle with a tail — qashan keletinin surady — he asked when he would come. Finally, degen — the participle of the same deu — works as quotation marks: "Egemen Qazaqstan" degen gazet — the newspaper called "Egemen Qazaqstan".
Table
| What we retell | How it is built | Example | In English |
|---|---|---|---|
| someone else's words | the quote + dep + a verb of speech | kelemin dep aıtty | said he would come |
| one's own thought | the thought + dep oilaimyn | duryş dep oilaimyn | I think it is correct |
| a fact-action | -ğan + possessive + case | kelgenin bilemın | I know he came |
| a fact-state | eken + possessive + case | bos ekenin aıtty | said it was free |
| someone else's source | eken as its own word | ol auyryp qalypty eken | he, it turns out, fell ill |
| a question in a retelling | -atyn + possessive + case | qashan keletinin surady | asked when he would come |
| a name | degen | Abai degen aqyn | the poet named Abai |
By example
- Журналист рейс тоқтатылды деп хабарладыThe journalist reported that the flight was cancelled
- Оның сұхбат бергенін кеше білдімThat he had given an interview, I learned only yesterday
- Бұл жаңалық жалған екенThis news, it turns out, is false
How the rule settles in your head
A rule is not memorized from an explanation. It is memorized from an attempt to use it and a mistake — that is why the app delivers it mixed in with words, not as a separate lesson: it resurfaces exactly where you forgot it.
Frequently asked
Dep aıtty and ekenin: how does it work in Kazakh?
News is always somebody else's speech: "it was reported that", "he stated that", "it turned out that". Wave 2 showed "dep" in one line; here the whole mechanism is taken apart, because in Kazakh there is no "that"-clause at all, and there are two ways around it — not interchangeable.
What does it look like in an example sentence Kazakh?
“Журналист рейс тоқтатылды деп хабарлады” — The journalist reported that the flight was cancelled. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.