Questions & Answers about Denizin dibi soğuk.
Why does deniz take the suffix -in in Denizin dibi soğuk?
The suffix -in is the genitive marker in Turkish. It turns deniz (“sea”) into denizin (“sea’s” or “of the sea”), showing that the bottom belongs to the sea.
Why is dip changed to dibi instead of just adding -i?
Turkish uses a genitive–possessive construction: the possessor (denizin) is in the genitive, and the possessed noun (dip) takes a 3rd-person singular possessive suffix -i to become dibi (“its bottom”). Phonetically, the final p in dip voices to b before the vowel i (a common assimilation).
Where is the verb “is”? Why does the sentence just say soğuk (“cold”)?
In Turkish, when you have a simple predicate adjective in the present tense, the copula -dır/-tir is normally dropped in spoken and informal writing. So Denizin dibi soğuk literally reads “The sea’s bottom cold,” but is understood as “The sea’s bottom is cold.” A more formal version would be Denizin dibi soğuktur.
What is the word order here? Why does denizin come before dibi?