ehirlerin

ehirlerin is a Turkish linguistic term describing a genitive plural form of the noun şehir (city). It literally means “of the cities” or “the cities’” and is used to indicate possession or relation to multiple cities. In Turkish, to express ownership or a relationship with more than one city, the noun takes the plural suffix -ler and the genitive suffix -in, yielding şehirlerin. This form then typically modifies another noun, as in şehirlerin nüfusu (the population of the cities) or şehirlerin planları (the cities’ plans).

Etymology and morphology: şehir originates from Persian shahr (city) and entered Turkish via historical contact with Persian and Ottoman Turkish. The plural form şehirler adds the suffix -ler, and the genitive suffix -in is appended after the plural to form şehirlerin. Turkish suffixes follow vowel harmony and consonant harmony rules, and the overall structure is root + plural suffix + genitive suffix.

Usage: The word is used in general and formal Turkish to discuss characteristics, statistics, or attributes pertaining to multiple cities. Examples include nüfus (population), büyüme hızı (growth rate), yönetim (administration), and plans or histories. It is common in geography, urban studies, policymaking, and news reporting when referring to several cities collectively. The construction is productive and can pair with various possessed nouns to form phrases such as şehirlerin ekonomisi (the cities’ economy) or şehirlerin altyapısı (the cities’ infrastructure).

See also: şehir (city), şehirler (cities), şehirlerde (in the cities). Turkish is an agglutinative language, so çoğul and iyelik suffixes attach to the noun to create possessive and relational forms like şehirlerin.