Learn Hardcore Turkish: Ayrıca maaş özellikle ilk ayda daha düşük olacak. - Also, the salary will be lower especially in the first month.

Ayrıca means also / in addition / moreover. It’s a discourse connector that links this sentence to previous information. It most commonly appears at the beginning:

Ayrıca, maaş özellikle ilk ayda daha düşük olacak.

A comma after Ayrıca is common but not mandatory. You can move it, but sentence-initial position sounds most natural for this kind of connector.

Why is there no article before maaş? How do I say the salary or your salary?

Turkish has no articles (no the/a). Bare maaş can mean salary, the salary, or your salary from context. If you need to mark possession:

maaşım = my salary
maaşın = your salary (informal singular)
maaşınız = your salary (polite/plural)
maaşı = his/her salary
maaşımız = our salary

Is maaş the subject here? Can the word order change?

Yes, maaş is the subject. Turkish is verb-final, but you can move constituents for emphasis. All of these are natural:

Ayrıca, maaş özellikle ilk ayda daha düşük olacak. (neutral)
Ayrıca, özellikle ilk ayda maaş daha düşük olacak. (fronts the time focus)
Maaş, özellikle ilk ayda, ayrıca daha düşük olacak. (more contrastive, with commas)

Keep the verb olacak at the end.

What exactly does özellikle modify here? Could I move it, and would that change the emphasis?

As placed, özellikle modifies the time phrase ilk ayda: especially in the first month. You can move it:

Özellikle ilk ayda maaş daha düşük olacak. (strong focus on the time frame)
Maaş özellikle ilk ayda daha düşük olacak. (same idea, subject first)
Özellikle maaş… would mean especially the salary…, contrasting the salary with other things.

Put özellikle right before what you want to emphasize.

What is the -da in ilk ayda? Is it the same -de/da that means too/also?

In ilk ayda, -da is the locative case suffix meaning in/at/on → in the first month. It’s attached to the noun and follows vowel harmony.

The separate word de/da (written separately) means too/also. Here it’s the attached locative suffix, not the clitic de/da.

Why is it ay-DA and not ay-TA? And why -a- and not -e-?

Two rules:

Vowel harmony: after the back vowel a in ay, the locative uses the back vowel a → -da, not -de.
Consonant voicing: after a voiced sound (here y), use d; after a voiceless consonant, you’d use t (e.g., kitapta, kağıtta).

So ay + da → ayda.

Can I just say ilk ay without -da?

Not if you mean in the first month. Without -da, ilk ay is just the noun phrase the first month. To express time/location, use the locative:

İlk ayda maaş daha düşük olacak. = In the first month, the salary will be lower.

How do comparatives work? Why daha düşük and not some adjective ending?

Turkish comparatives use the adverb daha before an adjective/adverb; there’s no special adjective ending:

düşük = low
daha düşük = lower
en düşük = the lowest (superlative with en)

Could I use az instead of düşük when talking about salary?

Both are possible but differ slightly:

düşük describes a level as an adjective (low/high): maaş düşük.
az is about quantity/amount (little/less): az maaş, daha az maaş. Natural ways to say it:
Maaş daha düşük olacak.
Daha az maaş alacaksın. (you will receive less salary)

Why do we need olacak? Isn’t Turkish allowed to drop the verb to be?

Turkish drops the copula only in the present general state:

Maaş düşük. = The salary is low (now/general).

For future, you need a verb form:

Maaş daha düşük olacak. = will be lower. More formal/assured: Maaş daha düşük olacaktır. Habitual/gnomic (not planned future): Maaş daha düşük olur.

What’s the difference between maaş daha düşük olacak and maaş düşecek?

Maaş daha düşük olacak states a future state relative to some reference (e.g., compared to later months).
Maaş düşecek (from düşmek = to fall) focuses on the act of decreasing from a current level. It implies a drop, not just being lower compared to something else.

Can özellikle go at the end, like … olacak özellikle?

No. Özellikle is a focusing adverb that normally precedes what it modifies. Sentence-final özellikle is unidiomatic. Use:

… özellikle ilk ayda …
or Özellikle … at the start, followed by the focused element.

Any punctuation tips? Would commas help here?

You can add commas to mark the parenthetical time phrase and the sentence connector:

Ayrıca, maaş, özellikle ilk ayda, daha düşük olacak. This is optional; many writers omit the inner commas unless the sentence is long or needs clarity. A comma after sentence-initial Ayrıca is common.

Any pronunciation tips for the tricky words (Ayrıca, maaş, özellikle, düşük, olacak)?

Ayrıca: dotless ı (like a relaxed, central vowel). Roughly: ay-rɯ-ja.
maaş: long aa (two a’s), ş = sh → maa-ash.
özellikle: ö and ü are front rounded vowels (shape lips as for oo but say e/i); stress often on -lik- part: ö-zel-lik-le.
düşük: ü as above, ş = sh; roughly: dü-şük.
olacak: spelled with c (zh sound, like j in English vision), not ç; say o-la-jak. Colloquial spelling olucak exists informally, but standard is olacak.

Can I say birinci ayda instead of ilk ayda?

You can, but ilk ayda is the natural choice for time expressions meaning in the first month. Birinci ayda sounds more enumerative (e.g., in a list of months) and less idiomatic in everyday speech.