Coordinates	40°26′30″N80°00′00″N
Name	Turkish
Nativename	Türkçe
Pronunciation
Familycolor	Altaic
States	Albania, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, ''Northern Cyprus'', ''Kosovo'', Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Syria, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and by immigrant communities in Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States.
Speakers	* Native: +83 million Total: +91 million
Fam1	Altaic (controversial)
Fam2	Turkic
Fam3	Southwestern Turkic (Oghuz)
Fam4	Western Oghuz
Dia1	Karamanli Turkish
Dia2	Cypriot Turkish
Stand1	Ottoman Turkish (defunct)
Script	Latin alphabet (Turkish variant)
Nation	''''
Minority	'''' (regional) (regional) (recognized)
Agency	Turkish Language Association
Iso1	tr
Iso2	tur
Iso3	tur
Lingua	part of 44-AAB-a
Map	MapOfTurkishSpeakers.png
Mapcaption	Countries with significant Turkish-speaking populations(Click on image for the legend)
Notice	IPA }}

Turkish (Turkish: ) is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other parts of Eastern Europe. Turkish is also spoken by several million people of immigrant origin in Western Europe, particularly in Germany.

The roots of the language can be traced to Central Asia, with the first known written records dating back nearly 1,300 years. To the west, the influence of Ottoman Turkish—the variety of the Turkish language that was used as the administrative and literary language of the Ottoman Empire—spread as the Ottoman Empire expanded. In 1928, as one of Atatürk's Reforms in the early years of the Republic of Turkey, the Ottoman script was replaced with a phonetic variant of the Latin alphabet. Concurrently, the newly founded Turkish Language Association initiated a drive to reform and standardize the language.

The distinctive characteristics of Turkish are vowel harmony and extensive agglutination. The basic word order of Turkish is subject–object–verb. Turkish has no noun classes or grammatical gender. Turkish has a strong T-V distinction and usage of honorifics. Turkish uses second-person pronouns that distinguish varying levels of politeness, social distance, age, courtesy or familiarity toward the addressee. The plural second-person pronoun and verb forms are used referring to a single person out of respect. In very formal situations, double plural second-person "sizler" may be used to refer to a much-respected person.

Classification

Turkish is a member of the Turkic, or Western, subgroup of the Oghuz languages, which includes Gagauz and Azerbaijani. The Oghuz languages form the Southwestern subgroup of the Turkic languages, a language family comprising some 30 living languages spoken across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Siberia. Some linguists believe the Turkic languages to be a part of a larger Altaic language family. About 40% of all speakers of Turkic languages are native Turkish speakers. The characteristic features of Turkish, such as vowel harmony, agglutination, and lack of grammatical gender, are universal within the Turkic family and the Altaic languages. There is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between Turkish and the other Oghuz languages, including Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Qashqai, Gagauz, and Balkan Gagauz Turkish.

History

The earliest known Turkic inscriptions are the two monumental Orkhon inscriptions found in modern Mongolia. Erected in honour of the prince Kul Tigin and his brother Emperor Bilge Khan, and dating back to some time between 732 and 735, they constitute another important early record. After the discovery and excavation of these monuments and associated stone slabs by Russian archaeologists in the wider area surrounding the Orkhon Valley between 1889 and 1893, it became established that the language on the inscriptions was the Old Turkic language written using the Orkhon script, which has also been referred to as "Turkic runes" or "runiform" due to a superficial similarity to the Germanic runic alphabets.

With the Turkic expansion during Early Middle Ages (c. 6th–11th centuries), peoples speaking Turkic languages spread across Central Asia, covering a vast geographical region stretching from Siberia to Europe and the Mediterranean. The Seljuqs of the Oghuz Turks, in particular, brought their language, Oghuz Turkic—the direct ancestor of today's Turkish language—into Anatolia during the 11th century. Also during the 11th century, an early linguist of the Turkic languages, Mahmud al-Kashgari from the Kara-Khanid Khanate, published the first comprehensive Turkic language dictionary and map of the geographical distribution of Turkic speakers in the ''Compendium of the Turkic Dialects'' (Ottoman Turkish: ''Divânü Lügati't-Türk'').

Ottoman Turkish

Following the adoption of Islam c. 950 by the Kara-Khanid Khanate and the Seljuq Turks, who are both regarded as the ethnic and cultural ancestors of the Ottomans, the administrative language of these states acquired a large collection of loanwords from Arabic and Persian. Turkish literature during the Ottoman period, particularly Ottoman Divan poetry, was heavily influenced by Persian, including the adoption of poetic meters and a great quantity of imported words. The literary and official language during the Ottoman Empire period (c. 1299–1922) is termed Ottoman Turkish, which was a mixture of Turkish, Persian, and Arabic that differed considerably and was largely unintelligible to the period's everyday Turkish known as ''kaba Türkçe'' or "rough Turkish", spoken by the less-educated lower and also rural members of society, which was much purer and which is the basis of the modern Turkish language.

Language reform and modern Turkish

After the foundation of the Republic of Turkey and the script reform, the Turkish Language Association (TDK) was established in 1932 under the patronage of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, with the aim of conducting research on Turkish. One of the tasks of the newly established association was to initiate a language reform to replace loanwords of Arabic and Persian origin with Turkish equivalents. By banning the usage of imported words in the press, the association succeeded in removing several hundred foreign words from the language. While most of the words introduced to the language by the TDK were newly derived from Turkic roots, it also opted for reviving Old Turkish words which had not been used for centuries.

Owing to this sudden change in the language, older and younger people in Turkey started to differ in their vocabularies. While the generations born before the 1940s tend to use the older terms of Arabic or Persian origin, the younger generations favor new expressions. It is considered particularly ironic that Atatürk himself, in his lengthy speech to the new Parliament in 1927, used a style of Ottoman which sounded so alien to later listeners that it had to be "translated" three times into modern Turkish: first in 1963, again in 1986, and most recently in 1995. There is also a political dimension to the language debate, with conservative groups tending to use more archaic words in the press or everyday language.

The past few decades have seen the continuing work of the TDK to coin new Turkish words to express new concepts and technologies as they enter the language, mostly from English. Many of these new words, particularly information technology terms, have received widespread acceptance. However, the TDK is occasionally criticized for coining words which sound contrived and artificial. Some earlier changes—such as ''bölem'' to replace ''fırka'', "political party"—also failed to meet with popular approval (''fırka'' has been replaced by the French loanword ''parti''). Some words restored from Old Turkic have taken on specialized meanings; for example ''betik'' (originally meaning "book") is now used to mean "script" in computer science.

Many of the words derived by TDK coexist with their older counterparts. This usually happens when a loanword changes its original meaning. For instance, ''dert'', derived from the Persian ''dard'' (درد "pain"), means "problem" or "trouble" in Turkish; whereas the native Turkish word ''ağrı'' is used for physical pain. Sometimes the loanword has a slightly different meaning from the native Turkish word, creating a situation similar to the coexistence of Germanic and Romance words in English (see List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents). Among some of the old words that were replaced are terms in geometry, cardinal directions, some months' names, and many nouns and adjectives. Some examples of modern Turkish words and the old loanwords are:

''uçak'' ''oran'' ''kuzey'' ''ekim''

align=left	Ottoman Turkish	Modern Turkish	English translation	Comments
müselles	''üçgen''	triangle
tayyare	|	airplane	Derived from the verb ''uçmak'' ("to fly"). The word was first proposed to mean "airport".
nispet	|	ratio	The old word is still used in the language today together with the new one. The modern word is from Old Turkic verb ''or-'' (to cut).
şimal	|	north	Derived from the Old Turkic noun ''kuz'' ("cold and dark place", "shadow"). The word is restored from Middle Turkic usage.
teşrinievvel	|	October	The noun ''ekim'' means "the action of planting", referring to the planting of cereal seeds in autumn, which is widespread in Turkey

Geographic distribution

thumb|right|200px|Road sign at the European end of the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul. (Photo taken during the 28th Eurasia Marathon in 2006)

Turkish is natively spoken by the Turkish people in Turkey and by the Turkish diaspora in some 30 other countries. In particular, Turkish-speaking minorities exist in countries that formerly (in whole or part) belonged to the Ottoman Empire, such as Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece (primarily in Western Thrace), the Republic of Macedonia, Romania, and Serbia. More than two million Turkish speakers live in Germany, and there are significant Turkish-speaking communities in France, The Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Due to the cultural assimilation of Turkish immigrants in host countries, not all ethnic Turkish immigrants speak the language with native fluency.

The number of native speakers in Turkey is over 67 million, corresponding to about 93 percent of the population. There are roughly another 10 million native speakers worldwide. Turkish is spoken as a first or second language by almost all of Turkey's residents, with Kurdish making up most of the remainder (about 3,950,000 as estimated in 1980). However, even most linguistic minorities in Turkey are bilingual, speaking Turkish as a second language to levels of native fluency.

Official status

Turkish is the official language of Turkey and is one of the official languages of Cyprus. It also has official (but not primary) status in the Prizren District of Kosovo and several municipalities of the Republic of Macedonia, depending on the concentration of Turkish-speaking local population.

In Turkey, the regulatory body for Turkish is the Turkish Language Association (''Türk Dil Kurumu'' or TDK), which was founded in 1932 under the name ''Türk Dili Tetkik Cemiyeti'' ("Society for Research on the Turkish Language"). The Turkish Language Association was influenced by the ideology of linguistic purism: indeed one of its primary tasks was the replacement of loanwords and foreign grammatical constructions with equivalents of Turkish origin. These changes, together with the adoption of the new Turkish alphabet in 1928, shaped the modern Turkish language spoken today. TDK became an independent body in 1951, with the lifting of the requirement that it should be presided over by the Minister of Education. This status continued until August 1983, when it was again made into a governmental body in the constitution of 1982, following the military coup d'état of 1980.

Dialects

Modern standard Turkish is based on the dialect of Istanbul. Dialectal variation persists, in spite of the levelling influence of the standard used in mass media and the Turkish education system since the 1930s. Academically, researchers from Turkey often refer to Turkish dialects as ''ağız'' or ''şive'', leading to an ambiguity with the linguistic concept of accent, which is also covered with these words. Projects investigating Turkish dialects are being carried out by several universities, as well as a dedicated work group of the Turkish Language Association. Work is currently in progress for the compilation and publication of their research as a comprehensive dialect atlas of the Turkish language.

''Rumelice'' is spoken by immigrants from Rumelia, and includes the distinct dialects of Deliorman, Dinler, and Adakale, which are influenced by the theoretized Balkan linguistic union. ''Kıbrıs Türkçesi'' is the name for Cypriot Turkish and is spoken by the Turkish Cypriots. ''Edirne'' is the dialect of Edirne. ''Ege'' is spoken in the Aegean region, with its usage extending to Antalya. The nomadic Yörük tribes of the Mediterranean Region of Turkey also have their own dialect of Turkish. This group is not to be confused with the Yuruk nomads of Macedonia, Greece, and European Turkey who speak Balkan Gagauz Turkish.

''Güneydoğu'' is spoken in the southeast, to the east of Mersin. ''Doğu'', a dialect in Eastern Anatolia, has a dialect continuum with Azeri, particularly with Karapapak dialects in some areas. The Central Anatolia region speaks ''Orta Anadolu''. ''Karadeniz'', spoken in the Eastern Black Sea Region and represented primarily by the Trabzon dialect, exhibits substratum influence from Greek in phonology and syntax; it is also known as ''Laz dialect'' (not to be confused with the Laz language). ''Kastamonu'' is spoken in Kastamonu and its surrounding areas. The Hemşinli dialect, known as ''Hemşince'', is spoken by the eastern group of Hamshenis around Artvin, influenced by Armenian. ''Karamanlıca'' is spoken in Greece, where it is also named ''Kαραμανλήδικα'' (Karamanlidika). It is the literary standard for Karamanlides.

Anatolian Dialects

The classification of the Anatolian dialects of Turkish language :

1. Eastern Anatolian Dialects

1.1.1. Ağrı, Malazgirt 1.1.2. Muş, Bitlis 1.1.3. Ahlat, Adilcevaz, Bulanık, Van 1.1.4. Diyarbakır 1.1.5. Palu, Karakoçan, Bingöl, Karlıova, Siirt

1.2.1. Kars (''Yerli'') 1.2.2. Erzurum, Aşkale, Ovacık, Narman 1.2.3. Pasinler, Horasan, Hınıs, Tekman, Karayazı, Tercan (''partim'') 1.2.4. Bayburt, İspir (excl. northern), Erzincan, Çayırlı, Tercan (''partim'') 1.2.5. Gümüşhane 1.2.6. Refahiye, Kemah 1.2.7. Kars (''Azeri and Terekeme'')

1.3.1. Posof, Artvin, Şavşat, Ardanuç, Yusufeli 1.3.2.1. Ardahan, Olur, Oltu, Şenkaya; Ahıska Turks (''Georgia'') 1.3.2.2. Tortum 1.3.2.3. İspir (''northern'')

1.4.1. Kemaliye, İliç, Ağın 1.4.2. Tunceli, Hozat, Mazgirt, Pertek 1.4.3. Harput 1.4.4. Elazığ, Keban, Baskil

2. Northeastern Anatolian Dialects

2.1.1. Vakfıkebir, Akçaabat, Tonya, Maçka, Of, Çaykara 2.1.2. Trabzon, Yomra, Sürmene, Araklı, Rize, Kalkandere, İkizdere

2.2.1. Çayeli 2.2.2. Çamlıhemşin, Pazar, Hemşin, Ardeşen, Fındıklı

2.3.1. Arhavi, Hopa (included Kemalpaşa belde) 2.3.2. Hopa (''a little part'') 2.3.3. Borçka, Muratlı, Camili, Meydancık, Ortaköy (Berta) ''bucak'' of Artvin (''merkez'')

3. Western Anatolian Dialects

3.1.1. Afyonkarahisar, Eskişehir, Uşak, Nallıhan 3.1.2. Çanakkale, Balıkesir, Bursa, Bilecik 3.1.3. Aydın, Burdur, Denizli, Isparta, İzmir, Kütahya, Manisa, Muğla 3.1.4. Antalya

3.2. İzmit, Sakarya

3.3.1. Zonguldak, Devrek, Ereğli 3.3.2. Bartın, Çaycuma, Amasra 3.3.3. Bolu, Ovacık, Eskipazar, Karabük, Safranbolu, Ulus, Eflani, Kurucaşile 3.3.4. Kastamonu

3.4.1. Göynük, Mudurnu, Kıbrıscık, Seben 3.4.2. Kızılcahamam, Beypazarı, Çamlıdere, Güdül, Ayaş 3.4.3. Çankırı, İskilip, Kargı, Bayat, Osmancık, Tosya, Boyabat

3.5.1. Sinop, Alaçam 3.5.2. Samsun, Kavak, Çarşamba, Terme 3.5.3. Ordu, Giresun, Şalpazarı

3.6.1. Ladik, Havza, Amasya, Tokat, Erbaa, Niksar, Turhal, Reşadiye, Almus 3.6.2. Zile, Artova, Sivas, Yıldızeli, Hafik, Zara, Mesudiye 3.6.3. Şebinkarahisar, Alucra, Suşehri 3.6.4. Kangal, Divriği, Gürün, Malatya, Hekimhan, Arapkir

3.7.1. Akçadağ, Darende, Doğanşehir 3.7.2. Afşin, Elbistan, Göksun, Andırın, Adana, Hatay, Tarsus, Ereğli 3.7.3. Kahramanmaraş, Gaziantep 3.7.4. Adıyaman, Halfeti, Birecik, Kilis

3.8. Ankara, Haymana, Balâ, Şereflikoçhisar, Çubuk, Kırıkkale, Keskin, Kalecik, Kızılırmak, Çorum, Yozgat, Kırşehir, Nevşehir, Niğde, Kayseri, Şarkışla, Gemerek

3.9. Konya, Mersin

Sounds

Consonants

{| class="wikitable" |+ Consonant phonemes of Standard Turkish |- ! ! colspan="2" | Labial ! colspan="2" | Dental/Alveolar ! colspan="2" | Post-
alveolar ! colspan="2" | Palatal ! colspan="2" | Velar ! colspan="2" | Glottal |- align=center !Nasal | colspan="2" | | colspan="2" | | colspan="2" | | colspan="2" | | colspan="2" | | colspan="2" | |- align=center !Stop | | | | | | | | | | | colspan="2" | |- align=center !Fricative | | | | | | | colspan="2" | | | rowspan="2" | | colspan="2" | |- align=center !Approximant | colspan="2" | | colspan="2" | | colspan="2" | | colspan="2" | | | colspan="2" | |- align=center !Rhotic | colspan="2" | | colspan="2" | | colspan="2" | | colspan="2" | | colspan="2" | | colspan="2" | |}

The phoneme , usually referred to as ''yumuşak g'' ("soft g"), ‹ğ› in Turkish orthography, represents a rather weak front-velar or palatal approximant between front vowels. It never occurs at the beginning of a word or a syllable, but always follows a vowel. When word-final or preceding another consonant, it lengthens the preceding vowel.

In native Turkic words, the sounds , , and are in complementary distribution with , , and ; the former set occurs adjacent to front vowels and the latter adjacent to back vowels. The distribution of these phonemes is often unpredictable, however, in foreign borrowings and proper nouns. In such words, , , and often occur with back vowels: some examples are given below.

When a vowel is added to many nouns ending with postvocalic ‹k›, the ‹k› becomes ‹ğ› by consonant alternation. A similar alternation applies to certain loan-words ending in ‹p› and ‹t›, which become ‹b› and ‹d›, respectively, with the addition of a vowel. This is because the final , , and gain voicing when followed by a vowel.

Vowels

The vowels of the Turkish language are, in their alphabetical order, ‹a›, ‹e›, ‹ı›, ‹i›, ‹o›, ‹ö›, ‹u›, ‹ü›. The Turkish vowel system can be considered as being three-dimensional, where vowels are characterised by three features: front and back, rounded and unrounded and Vowel height. Unrounded

+ Turkish vowels
	Front		Back
	|	Rounded	Unrounded	Rounded
High	''i''	''ü''	''ı''
Low	''e''	''ö''	''a''

There are no diphthongs in Turkish; when two vowels come together, which occurs in some Arabic loanwords, each vowel retains its individual sound. However, a slight diphthong can occur when two vowels surround a ''yumuşak g''. For example, the word ''soğuk'' ("cold") can be pronounced (resembling the English ''soak'') by some speakers.

Vowel harmony

Vowel harmony is the principle by which a native Turkish word incorporates either exclusively back vowels (''a'', ''ı'', ''o'', and ''u'') or exclusively front vowels (''e'', ''i'', ''ö'', and ''ü''). The pattern of vowels is shown in the table above.

Grammatical affixes have "a chameleon-like quality", and obey one of the following patterns of vowel harmony: twofold (''-e/-a''): the locative suffix, for example, is ''-de'' after front vowels and ''-da'' after back vowels. The notation ''-de''² is a convenient shorthand for this pattern.

fourfold (''-i/-ı/-ü/-u''): the genitive suffix, for example, is ''-in'' or ''-ın'' after unrounded vowels (front or back respectively); and ''-ün'' or ''-un'' after the corresponding rounded vowels. In this case, the shorthand notation ''-in''⁴ is used.

The following examples, based on the copula ''-dir''⁴ ("[it] is"), illustrate the principles of vowel harmony in practice: ''Türkiye'dir'' ("it is Turkey"), ''kapıdır'' ("it is the door"), bu ''gündür'' ("it is the day"), ''paltodur'' ("it is the coat").

There are some exceptions to the rules of vowel harmony. In compound words, the vowels need not harmonize between the constituent words of the compound. Forms like ''bu+gün'' ("today") or ''baş+kent'' ("capital") are permissible. In addition, vowel harmony does not apply in loanwords and some invariant affixes, such as ''-yor'' (present tense) and ''-bil-'' (potential). Some loanwords do, however, exhibit partial or even complete vowel harmony (e.g. ''mümkün'' "possible" < Arabic ''mumkin''; and ''dürbün'' "binoculars" < Persian ''dūrbīn''). There are also a few native Turkish words that do not follow the rule, such as ''anne'' ("mother"). In such words, suffixes harmonize with the final vowel: thus ''annedir'' ("she is a mother"). Many loanwords from Arabic and French, however, take front-vowel suffixes after final back vowels: for example ''halsiz'' < ''hal'' + ''-siz⁴'' "listless", ''meçhuldür'' < ''meçhul'' + ''-dir⁴'' "it is unknown", ''harfler'' < ''harf'' + ''-ler²'' "(alphabetical) letters" (instead of the expected *''halsız'', *''meçhuldur'' and *''harflar'').

The road sign in the photograph above illustrates several of these features:

a native compound which does not obey vowel harmony: ''Orta+köy'' ("middle village"—a place name)

a loanword also violating vowel harmony: ''viyadük'' ("viaduct" < French ''viaduc'')

the possessive suffix'' -i''⁴ harmonizing with the final vowel (and softening the ''k'' by consonant alternation): ''viyadüğü''

Stress

Stress is usually on the last syllable. Exceptions include some suffix combinations and loanwords, particularly from Italian and Greek, as well as interjections, adverbs, and many proper names. While such loanwords are usually stressed on the penultimate syllable ( ''lokanta'' "restaurant" or ''iskele'' "quay"), the stress of proper names is less predictable ( ''İstanbul'', ''Ankara'').

Grammar

Turkish is an agglutinative language and frequently uses affixes, and specifically suffixes, or endings. One word can have many affixes and these can also be used to create new words, such as creating a verb from a noun, or a noun from a verbal root (see the section on Word formation). Most affixes indicate the grammatical function of the word. The only native prefixes are alliterative intensifying syllables used with adjectives or adverbs: for example ''sımsıcak'' ("boiling hot" < ''sıcak'') and ''masmavi'' ("bright blue" < ''mavi'').

The extensive use of affixes can give rise to long words. It is jokingly said that the longest Turkish word is ''Çekoslovakyalılaştıramadıklarımızdanmışsınız'', meaning "You are said to be one of those that we couldn't manage to convert to a Czechoslovak". This example is of course contrived; but long words do frequently occur in normal Turkish, as in this heading of a newspaper obituary column: ''Bayramlaşamadıklarımız'' (Bayram [festival]-Recipr-Impot-Partic-Plur-PossPl1; "Those of our number with whom we cannot exchange the season's greetings"). Another example can be seen in the final word of this heading of the online Turkish Spelling Guide (''İmlâ Kılavuzu''): ''Dilde birlik, ulusal birliğin vazgeçilemezlerindendir'' ("Unity in language is among the indispensables [dispense-Pass-Impot-Plur-PossS3-Abl-Copula] of national unity ~ Linguistic unity is a ''sine qua non'' of national unity").

Nouns

There is no definite article in Turkish, but definiteness of the object is implied when the accusative ending is used (see below). Turkish nouns decline by taking case-endings, as in Latin. There are six noun cases in Turkish, with all the endings following vowel harmony (shown in the table using the shorthand superscript notation. The plural marker ''-ler''² immediately follows the noun before any case or other affixes (e.g. ''köylerin'' "of the villages").

{|class="wikitable" border="1" |- !rowspan="2"|Case !rowspan="2"|Ending !colspan="2"|Examples !rowspan="2"|Meaning |- !''köy'' "village" !''ağaç'' "tree" |- |Nominative |Ø (none) |''köy'' |''ağaç'' |(the) village/tree |- |Genitive |''-in''⁴ |''köyün'' |''ağacın'' |the village's/tree'sof the village/tree |- |Dative |''-e''² |''köye'' |''ağaca'' |to the village/tree |- |Accusative |''-i''⁴ |''köyü'' |''ağacı'' |the village/tree |- |Ablative |''-den''² |''köyden'' |''ağaçtan'' |from the village/tree |- |Locative |''-de''² |''köyde'' |''ağaçta'' |in the village/on the tree |}

The accusative case marker is used only for definite objects; compare ''(bir) ağaç gördük'' "we saw a tree" with ''ağacı gördük'' "we saw the tree". The plural marker ''-ler''² is generally not used when a class or category is meant: ''ağaç gördük'' can equally well mean "we saw trees [as we walked through the forest]"—as opposed to ''ağaçları gördük'' "we saw the trees [in question]".

The declension of ''ağaç'' illustrates two important features of Turkish phonology: consonant assimilation in suffixes (''ağaçtan, ağaçta'') and voicing of final consonants before vowels (''ağacın, ağaca, ağacı'').

Additionally, nouns can take suffixes that assign person: for example ''-imiz''⁴, "our". With the addition of the copula (for example ''-im''⁴, "I am") complete sentences can be formed. The interrogative particle ''mi''⁴ immediately follows the word being questioned: ''köye mi?'' "[going] to the village?", ''ağaç mı?'' "[is it a] tree?".

{|class="wikitable" border="1" |- !Turkish !English |- |''ev'' |align="right"|(the) house |- |''evler'' |align="right"|(the) houses |- |''evin'' |align="right"|your (sing.) house |- |''eviniz'' |align="right"|your (pl./formal) house |- |''evim'' |align="right"|my house |- |''evimde'' |align="right"|at my house |- |''evlerinizin'' |align="right"|of your houses |- |''evlerinizden'' |align="right"|from your houses |- |''evlerinizdendi'' |align="right"|(he/she/it) was from your houses |- |''evlerinizdenmiş'' |align="right"|(he/she/it) was (apparently/said to be) from your houses |- |''Evinizdeyim.'' |align="right"|I am at your house. |- |''Evinizdeymişim.'' |align="right"|I was (apparently) at your house. |- |''Evinizde miyim?'' |align="right"|Am I at your house? |}

The Turkish personal pronouns in the nominative case are ''ben'' (1s), ''sen'' (2s), ''o'' (3s), ''biz'' (1pl), ''siz'' (2pl, or formal/polite 2s), and ''onlar'' (3pl). They are declined regularly with some exceptions: ''benim'' (1s gen.); ''bizim'' (1pl gen.); ''bana'' (1s dat.); ''sana'' (2s dat.); and the oblique forms of ''o'' use the root ''on''. All other pronouns (reflexive ''kendi'' and so on) are declined regularly.

Linking nouns (''Tamlama'')

Two nouns, or groups of nouns, may be joined in either of two ways:

definite (possessive) compound (''belirtili tamlama''). E.g. ''Türkiye'nin sesi'' "the voice of Turkey (radio station)": the voice belonging to Turkey. Here the relationship is shown by the genitive ending ''-in''⁴ added to the first noun; the second noun has the third-person suffix ''-(s)i''⁴.

indefinite (qualifying) compound (''belirtisiz tamlama''). E.g. ''Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'' "Turkey-Republic = the Republic of Turkey": not the republic belonging to Turkey, but the Republic that is Turkey. Here the first noun has no ending; but the second noun has the ending ''-(s)i''⁴—the same as in definite compounds.

The following table illustrates these principles. In some cases the constituents of the compounds are themselves compounds: these subsidiary compounds are marked with [square brackets].

''"kimse"'' ''Atatürk'' ''"Orhan"'' ''r'' ''Türk'' [''Türk Dili''] ''Ford'' ''Ankara'' [''yıl sonu''] [ [''İstanbul Üniversitesi''] [''Edebiyat Fakültesi''] ] ''ne oldum''

+ Linked nouns and noun groups
Definite (possessive)	Indefinite (qualifier)	Complement
''kimsenin''	|	''yanıtı''	nobody's answer
	|	''yanıtı''	the answer "nobody"
''Atatürk'ün''	|	''evi''	Atatürk's house
	|	''Bulvarı''	Atatürk Boulevard (named after, not belonging to Atatürk)
''Orhan'ın''	|	''adı''	Orhan's name
	|	''adı''	the name "Orhan"
	|	''sessizi''	the consonant ''r''
[''r sessizi'']''nin''	|	''söylenişi''	pronunciation of the consonant ''r''
	|	[''Dil Kurumu'']	Turkish language-association
	|	''Dergisi''	Turkish-language magazine
	|	[''aile arabası'']	Ford family car
''Ford'un''	|	[''aile arabası'']	(Mr) Ford's family car
[''Ford ailesi'']''nin''	|	''arabası''	the Ford family's car
	|	[''Kız Lisesi'']	Ankara Girls' School
	|	''sınavları''	year-end examinations
''Bulgaristan'ın''	|	[''İstanbul Başkonsolosluğu'']	the Istanbul Consulate-General of Bulgaria (located in Istanbul, but belonging to Bulgaria)
	|	[ [''Türk Edebiyatı''] ''Profesörü'']	Professor of Turkish Literature in the Faculty of Literature of the University of Istanbul
	|	''delisi''	"what-have-I-become!" madman = parvenu who gives himself airs

As the last example shows, the qualifying expression may be a substantival sentence rather than a noun or noun group.

Adjectives

Turkish adjectives are not declined. However most adjectives can also be used as nouns, in which case they are declined: e.g. ''güzel'' ("beautiful") → ''güzeller'' ("(the) beautiful ones / people"). Used attributively, adjectives precede the nouns they modify. The adjectives ''var'' ("existent") and ''yok'' ("non-existent") are used in many cases where English would use "there is" or "have", ''e.g.'' ''süt yok'' ("there is no milk", ''lit.'' "(the) milk (is) non-existent"); the construction "''noun 1''-GEN ''noun 2''-POSS var/yok" can be translated "''noun 1'' has/doesn't have ''noun 2''"; ''imparatorun elbisesi yok'' "the emperor has no clothes" ("(the) emperor-''of'' clothes-''his'' non-existent"); ''kedimin ayakkabıları yoktu'' ("my cat had no shoes", ''lit.'' "cat-''my''-''of'' shoe-''plur.''-''its'' non-existent-''past tense''").

Verbs

Turkish verbs indicate person. They can be made negative, potential ("can"), or impotential ("cannot"). Furthermore, Turkish verbs show tense (present, past, future, and aorist), mood (conditional, imperative, inferential, necessitative, and optative), and aspect. Negation is expressed by the infix ''-me²-'' immediately following the stem.

{|class="wikitable" border="1" |- !Turkish !English |- |''gel-'' |align="right"|(to) come |- |''gelebil-'' |align="right"|(to) be able to come |- |''gelme-'' |align="right"|not (to) come |- |''geleme-'' |align="right"|(to) be unable to come |- |''gelememiş'' |align="right"|Apparently (s)he couldn't come |- |''gelebilecek'' |align="right"|(s)he'll be able to come |- |''gelmeyebilir'' |align="right"|(s)he may (possibly) not come |- |''gelebilirsen'' |align="right"|if thou can come |- |''gelinir'' |align="right"|(''passive'') one comes, people come |- |''gelebilmeliydin'' |align="right"| thou shouldst have been able to come |- |''gelebilseydin'' |align="right"|if thou could have come |- |''gelmeliydin'' |align="right"|thou shouldst have come |}

All Turkish verbs are conjugated in the same way, except for the irregular and defective verb ''i-'', the Turkish copula (corresponding to English ''to be''), which can be used in compound forms (the shortened form is called an enclitic): ''Gelememişti'' = ''Gelememiş idi'' = ''Gelememiş + i- + -di''.

Attributive verbs (participles)

Turkish verbs have attributive forms, including present (with the ending ''-en''²), future (''-ecek''²), indirect/inferential past (''-miş''⁴), and aorist (-''er''² or -''ir''⁴). These forms can function as either adjectives or nouns: ''oynamayan çocuklar'' "children who do not play", ''oynamayanlar'' "those who do not play"; ''okur yazar'' "reader-writer = literate", ''okur yazarlar'' "literates".

The most important function of attributive verbs is to form modifying phrases equivalent to the relative clauses found in most European languages. The attributive forms used in these constructions are the future (''-ecek''²) and an older form (-''dik''⁴), which covers both present and past meanings. The use of these "personal or relative participles" is illustrated in the following table, in which the examples are presented according to the grammatical case which would be seen in the equivalent English relative clause.

{|class="wikitable" border="1" |- !colspan="2"|English equivalent !rowspan="2"|Example !colspan="2"|Translation |- !Case of relative pronoun !Pronoun !Literal !Idiomatic |- |Nominative |who, which/that |''şimdi konuşan adam'' |"now speaking man" |the man (who is) now speaking |- |Genitive |whose (nom.) |''babası şimdi konuşan adam'' |"father-his now speaking man" |the man whose father is now speaking |- | |whose (acc.) |''babasını dün gördüğüm adam'' |"father-his-ACC yesterday seen-my man" |the man whose father I saw yesterday |- | |at whose |''resimlerine baktığımız ressam'' |"pictures-his-to looked-our artist" |the artist whose pictures we looked at |- | |of which |''muhtarı seçildiği köy'' |"mayor-its been-chosen-his village" |the village of which he was elected mayor |- | |of which |''muhtarı seçilmek istediği köy'' |the village of which he wishes to be elected mayor |- |Remaining cases (incl. prepositions) |whom, which |''yazdığım mektup'' |"written-my letter" |the letter (which) I wrote |- | |from which |''çıktığımız kapı'' |"emerged-our door" |the door from which we emerged |- | |on which |''geldikleri vapur'' |"come-their ship" |the ship they came on |- | |which + subordinate clause |''yaklaştığını anladığı hapishane günleri'' |"approach-their-ACC understood-his prison days-its" |the prison days (which) he knew were approaching |}

Word order

Word order in simple Turkish sentences is generally subject–object–verb, as in Korean and Latin, but unlike English. In more complex sentences, the basic rule is that the qualifier precedes the qualified: this principle includes, as an important special case, the participial modifiers discussed above. The definite precedes the indefinite: thus ''çocuğa hikâyeyi anlattı'' "she told the child the story", but ''hikâyeyi bir çocuğa anlattı'' "she told the story to a child".

It is possible to alter the word order to stress the importance of a certain word or phrase. The main rule is that the word before the verb has the stress without exception. For example, if one wants to say "Hakan went to school" with a stress on the word "school" (''okul'', the indirect object) it would be "Hakan ''okula'' gitti". If the stress is to be placed on "Hakan" (the subject), it would be "Okula ''Hakan'' gitti" which means "it's Hakan who went to school".

Vocabulary

Latest 2010 edition of “Büyük Türkçe Sözlük” (''Great Turkish Dictionary''), the official dictionary of the Turkish language published by Turkish Language Association, contains 616,767 words, expressions, terms and nouns.

The 2005 edition of ''Güncel Türkçe Sözlük'', the official dictionary of the Turkish language published by Turkish Language Association, contains 104,481 words, of which about 86% are Turkish and 14% are of foreign origin. Among the most significant foreign contributors to Turkish vocabulary are Arabic, French, Persian, Italian, English, and Greek.

Word formation

Turkish extensively uses agglutination to form new words from nouns and verbal stems. The majority of Turkish words originate from the application of derivative suffixes to a relatively small set of core vocabulary.

An example set of words derived from a substantive root:

{|class="wikitable" border="1" |- !Turkish !Components !English !Word class |- |''göz'' |''göz'' |eye |Noun |- |''gözlük'' |''göz + -lük'' |eyeglasses |Noun |- |''gözlükçü'' |''göz + -lük + -çü'' |optician |Noun |- |''gözlükçülük'' |''göz + -lük + -çü + -lük'' |optician's trade |Noun |- |''gözlem'' |''göz + -lem'' |observation |Noun |- |''gözlemci'' |''göz + -lem + -ci'' |observer |Noun |- |''gözle-'' |''göz + -le'' |observe |Verb (order) |- |''gözlemek'' |''göz + -le + -mek'' |to observe |Verb (infinitive) |}

Another example, starting from a verbal root:

{|class="wikitable" border="1" |- !Turkish !Components !English !Word class |- |''yat-'' |''yat-'' |lie down |Verb (order) |- |''yatmak'' |''yat-mak'' |to lie down |Verb (infinitive) |- |''yatık'' |''yat- + -(ı)k'' |leaning |Adjective |- |''yatak'' |''yat- + -ak'' |bed, place to sleep |Noun |- |''yatay'' |''yat- + -ay'' |horizontal |Adjective |- |''yatkın'' |''yat- + -gın'' |inclined to; stale (from lying too long) |Adjective |- |''yatır-'' |''yat- + -(ı)r-'' |lay down |Verb (order) |- |''yatırmak'' |''yat- + -(ı)r-mak'' |to lay down |Verb (infinitive) |- |''yatırım'' |''yat- + -(ı)r- + -(ı)m'' |laying down; deposit, investment |Noun |- |''yatırımcı'' |''yat- + -(ı)r- + -(ı)m + -cı'' |depositor, investor |Noun |}

New words are also frequently formed by compounding two existing words into a new one, as in German. A few examples of compound words are given below:

{|class="wikitable" border="1" |- !Turkish !English !Constituent words !Literal meaning |- |''pazartesi'' |Monday |''pazar'' ("Sunday") and ''ertesi'' ("after") |after Sunday |- |''bilgisayar'' |computer |''bilgi'' ("information") and ''say-'' ("to count") |information counter |- |''gökdelen'' |skyscraper |''gök'' ("sky") and ''del-'' ("to pierce") |sky piercer |- |''başparmak'' |thumb |''baş'' ("prime") and ''parmak'' ("finger") |primary finger |- |''önyargı'' |prejudice |''ön'' ("before") and ''yargı'' ("splitting; judgement") |fore-judging |}

Writing system

Turkish is written using a modified version of the Latin alphabet introduced in 1928 by Atatürk to replace the Arabic-based Ottoman Turkish alphabet. The Ottoman alphabet marked only three different vowels—long ''ā, ū'' and ''ī''—and included several redundant consonants, such as variants of ''z'' (which were distinguished in Arabic but not in Turkish). The omission of short vowels in the Arabic script was claimed to make it particularly unsuitable for Turkish, which has eight vowels.

The reform of the script was an important step in the cultural reforms of the period. The task of preparing the new alphabet and selecting the necessary modifications for sounds specific to Turkish was entrusted to a Language Commission composed of prominent linguists, academics, and writers. The introduction of the new Turkish alphabet was supported by public education centers opened throughout the country, cooperation with publishing companies, and encouragement by Atatürk himself, who toured the country teaching the new letters to the public. As a result, there was a dramatic increase in literacy from its original Third World levels.

The Latin alphabet was applied to the Turkish language for educational purposes even before the 20th-century reform. Instances include a 1635 Latin-Albanian dictionary by Frang Bardhi, who also incorporated several sayings in the Turkish language, as an appendix to his work (e.g. ''alma agatsdan irak duschamas'' – 'An apple does not fall far from its tree').

Turkish now has an alphabet suited to the sounds of the language: the spelling is largely phonetic, with one letter corresponding to each phoneme. Most of the letters are used approximately as in English, the main exceptions being ‹c›, which denotes (‹j› being used for the found in Persian and European loans); and the undotted ‹ı›, representing . As in German, ‹ö› and ‹ü› represent and . The letter ‹ğ›, in principle, denotes but has the property of lengthening the preceding vowel and assimilating any subsequent vowel. The letters ‹ş› and ‹ç› represent and , respectively. A circumflex is written over back vowels following ‹k›, ‹g›, or ‹l› when these consonants represent , , and —almost exclusively in Arabic and Persian loans. An apostrophe is used to separate proper nouns from any suffixes: e.g. 'in Istanbul'.

The specifically Turkish letters and spellings described above are illustrated in this table:

{|class="wikitable" border="1" |- !Turkish spelling !Pronunciation !Meaning |- | | |[İstanbul district] |- | | |where/that s/he works/worked |- | | |good news |- | | |necessary |- | | |condemned |}

Sample

''Dostlar Beni Hatırlasın'' by Aşık Veysel Şatıroğlu (1894–1973), a minstrel and highly regarded poet in the Turkish folk literature tradition.

Orthography	!width="35%"	Translation
Ben giderim adım kalır		I depart, my name remains
Dostlar beni hatırlasın		May friends remember me
Düğün olur bayram gelir		There are weddings, there are feasts
Dostlar beni hatırlasın		May friends remember me
Can kafeste durmaz uçar		The soul won't stay caged, it flies away
Dünya bir han konan göçer		The world is an inn, residents depart
Ay dolanır yıllar geçer		The moon wanders, years pass by
Dostlar beni hatırlasın		May friends remember me
Can bedenden ayrılacak		The soul will leave the body
Tütmez baca yanmaz ocak		The chimney won't smoke, furnace won't burn
Selam olsun kucak kucak		Goodbye goodbye to you all
Dostlar beni hatırlasın		May friends remember me
Açar solar türlü çiçek		Various flowers bloom and fade
Kimler gülmüş kim gülecek		Someone laughed, someone will laugh
Murat yalan ölüm gerçek		Wishes are lies, death is real
Dostlar beni hatırlasın		May friends remember me
Gün ikindi akşam olur		Morning and afternoon turn to night
Gör ki başa neler gelir		And many things happen to a person anyway
Veysel gider adı kalır		Veysel departs, his name remains
Dostlar beni hatırlasın		May friends remember me

See also

Turkish alphabet

Turkish folk literature

Turkish Language Olympiads

Turkish literature

Turkish name

Turkish Sign Language

List of English words of Turkic origin

List of replaced loanwords in Turkish

Notes

Details of the sources cited only by the author's name are given in full in the ''References'' section.

References

Printed sources (2nd edition 1989) On-line sources , University of Essen|publisher=Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association|url=http://www.tusiad.org/haberler/basin/ab/9.pdf|title=The European Turks: Gross Domestic Product, Working Population, Entrepreneurs and Household Data|format=PDF|accessdate=2007-01-06|year=2003| archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20051204091302/http://www.tusiad.org/haberler/basin/ab/9.pdf| archivedate = December 4, 2005}}

Further reading

External links

Swadesh list of Turkish basic vocabulary words (from Wiktionary's Swadesh-list appendix)

Turkish Language: Resources - University of Michigan

LT: LearningTurkish (non-commercial)

LT: Automatic Turkish Verb Declinations (non-commercial)

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Coordinates	40°26′30″N80°00′00″N
Name	Lady Gaga
Alt	Portrait of a young, pale-skinned Caucasian female with blond hair
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta
Birth date	March 28, 1986
Birth place	New York, New York, U.S.
Instrument	Vocals, piano, keyboards
Genre	Pop, dance
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, performance artist, record producer, dancer, businesswoman, activist
Years active	2005–present
Label	Def Jam, Cherrytree, Streamline, Kon Live, Interscope
Website	}}

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (; born March 28, 1986), better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, she primarily studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart and briefly attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts before withdrawing to focus on her musical career. She began performing in the rock music scene of Manhattan's Lower East Side, and was signed with Streamline Records by the end of 2007. During her employment as a songwriter for the record company, her vocal abilities captured the attention of recording artist Akon, who signed her to his label Kon Live Distribution.

Lady Gaga came to prominence as a recording artist following the release of her debut album ''The Fame'' (2008), which was a critical and commercial success that topped charts around the world and included the international number-one singles "Just Dance" and "Poker Face". After embarking on the The Fame Ball Tour, she followed the album with ''The Fame Monster'' (2009), which spawned the worldwide hit singles "Bad Romance", "Telephone" and "Alejandro". The album's success allowed her to embark on the eighteen-month long Monster Ball Tour, which later became one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time. Her 2011 album ''Born This Way'' topped the charts of most major markets and generated more international chart-topping singles, including "Born This Way", "Judas" and "The Edge of Glory". Besides her musical career, she involves herself with humanitarian causes and LGBT activism.

Influenced by David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Madonna and Queen, Lady Gaga is recognized for her flamboyant, diverse and outré contributions to the music industry through her fashion, performances and music videos. She has sold an estimated 23 million albums and 64 million singles worldwide, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time and her singles are some of the best selling worldwide. Her achievements include five Grammy Awards and 13 MTV Video Music Awards. Lady Gaga has consecutively appeared on ''Billboard'' magazine's Artists of the Year (scoring the definitive title in 2010), ranked fourth in VH1's list of 100 Greatest Women in Music, is regularly placed on lists composed by ''Forbes'' magazine and was named one of the most influential people in the world by ''Time'' magazine. In 2012, Gaga was ranked at number four on ''Billboard's'' list of top moneymakers of 2011, grossing more than 25 million dollars.

Biography

1986–2004: Early life

Lady Gaga was born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta on March 28, 1986 in New York City to parents Cynthia (née Bissett) and Joseph Germanotta, an internet entrepreneur. Descending from Italian and more distant French-Canadian roots, Gaga is the elder of two children. Her sister, Natali, a fashion student, was born in 1992. Despite her seemingly affluent upbringing in the family home in Manhattan's Upper West Side, Gaga has stressed that she did not come from a wealthy background, stating that her parents "both came from lower-class families, so we've worked for everything—my mother worked eight to eight out of the house, in telecommunications, and so did my father."

From the age of 11, Gaga – who was raised Roman Catholic – attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart, a private all-girls Roman Catholic school on Manhattan's Upper East Side. She described her academic life in high school as "very dedicated, very studious, very disciplined" but also "a bit insecure": "I used to get made fun of for being either too provocative or too eccentric, so I started to tone it down. I didn't fit in, and I felt like a freak." Acquaintances dispute that she did not fit in at school. "She had a core group of friends; she was a good student. She liked boys a lot, but singing was No. 1," recalled a former high school classmate. Gaga began playing the piano at the age of 4, went on to write her first piano ballad at 13, and started to perform at open mike nights by the age of 14. Her passion for musical theatre brought her lead roles in high school productions, including Adelaide in ''Guys and Dolls'' and Philia in ''A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum''. She also appeared in a very small role as a mischievous classmate in the television drama series ''The Sopranos'' in a 2001 episode titled "The Telltale Moozadell" in addition to unsuccessfully auditioning for parts in New York shows.

When her time at the Convent of the Sacred Heart came to an end, her mother encouraged her to apply for the Collaborative Arts Project 21 (CAP21), a musical theatre training conservatory at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. After becoming one of twenty students to gain early admission, she eventually lived in an NYU dorm on 11th Street by the age of 17. CAP21 prepared her for her future career focus in "music, art, sex and celebrity" where, in addition to sharpening her songwriting skills, she composed essays and analytical papers on art, religion, social issues and politics, including a thesis on pop artists Spencer Tunick and Damien Hirst. With CAP21, she also tried out for and won auditions, including the part of an unsuspecting diner customer for MTV's ''Boiling Points'', a prank reality television show. But Gaga felt more creative than some of her classmates. "Once you learn how to think about art, you can teach yourself," she said.

2005–07: Career beginnings

Gaga withdrew from CAP21 at 19, in the second semester of her sophomore year, deciding to focus on her musical career. Her father agreed to pay her rent for a year, on the condition that she re-enroll at Tisch if unsuccessful. "I left my entire family, got the cheapest apartment I could find, and ate shit until somebody would listen," she remembers. Settled in a small apartment on Rivington Street towards the summer of 2005, Gaga recorded a couple of songs with hip-hop singer Grandmaster Melle Mel, for an audio book accompanying the children's book ''The Portal in the Park'', by Cricket Casey. She also began a band called the Stefani Germanotta Band (SGBand) with some friends from NYU – guitarist Calvin Pia, bassist Eli Silverman, drummer Alex Beckham and booking manager Frank Fredericks – in September of that year. The band played a mixture of songs: some self-penned alongside classic rock numbers like Led Zeppelin's "D'yer Mak'er". Playing in bars like the Greenwich Village's The Bitter End and the Lower East Side's the Mercury Lounge, the band developed a small fan base and caught the eye of music producer Joe Vulpis. Soon after arranging time in Vulpis' studio in the months that followed, SGBand were selling their extended plays ''Words'' and ''Red and Blue'' (both 2005) at gigs around New York while becoming a local fixture of the downtown Lower East Side club scene.

SGBand reached their career peak at the 2006 Songwriters Hall of Fame New Songwriters Showcase at The Cutting Room in June where Wendy Starland, a musician, appeared as a talent scout for music producer Rob Fusari. Starland informed Fusari – who was searching for a female singer to front a new band – of Gaga's ability and contacted her. With SGBand disbanded, Gaga traveled daily to New Jersey to work on songs she had written and compose new material with the music producer. While in collaboration, Fusari compared some of her vocal harmonies to those of Freddie Mercury, lead singer of Queen. It was Fusari who helped create the moniker Gaga after the Queen song "Radio Ga Ga". Gaga was in the process of trying to come up with a stage name when she received a text message from Fusari that read "Lady Gaga." He explained, "Every day, when Stef came to the studio, instead of saying hello, I would start singing 'Radio Ga Ga'. That was her entrance song" and that the text message was the result of a predictive text glitch that changed "radio" to "lady". She texted back, "That's it," and declared, "Don't ever call me Stefani again." ''The New York Post'', however, has reported that this story is incorrect, and that the name resulted from a marketing meeting.

Although the musical relationship between Fusari and Gaga was unsuccessful at first, the pair soon set up a company titled Team Lovechild in which they recorded and produced electropop tracks and sent them to music industry bosses. Joshua Sarubin, the head of A&R; at Def Jam Recordings, responded positively and vied for the record company to take a chance on her "unusual and provocative" performance. After having his boss Antonio "L.A." Reid in agreement, Gaga was signed to Def Jam in September 2006 with the intention of having an album ready in nine months. However, she was dropped by the label after only three months – an unfortunate period of her life that would later inspire her treatment for the music video for her 2011 single "Marry the Night". Devastated, Gaga returned to the solace of the family home for Christmas and the nightlife culture of the Lower East Side.

She became increasingly experimental: fascinating herself with emerging neo-burlesque shows, go-go dancing at bars dressed in little more than a bikini in addition to experimenting with drugs. Her father, however, did not understand the reason behind her drug intake and could not look at her for several months. "I was onstage in a thong, with a fringe hanging over my ass thinking that had covered it, lighting hairsprays on fire, go-go dancing to Black Sabbath and singing songs about oral sex. The kids would scream and cheer and then we'd all go grab a beer. It represented freedom to me. I went to a Catholic school but it was on the New York underground that I found myself." It was then when she became romantically involved with a heavy metal drummer in a relationship and break-up she likened to the musical film ''Grease'': "I was his Sandy, and he was my Danny, and I just broke." He later became an inspiration behind some of her later songs.

During this time, she met performance artist Lady Starlight, who helped mold her on-stage persona. Starlight explained that, upon their first meeting, Gaga wanted to perform with her to songs she had recorded with Fusari. Like SGBand, the pair soon began performing at many of the downtown club venues like the Mercury Lounge, The Bitter End, and the Rockwood Music Hall. Their live performance art piece was known as "Lady Gaga and the Starlight Revue" and, billed as "The Ultimate Pop Burlesque Rockshow", was a low-fi tribute to 1970s variety acts. Soon after, the two were invited to play at the 2007 Lollapalooza music festival in August that year. The show was critically acclaimed, and their performance received positive reviews. Having initially focused on avant-garde electronic dance music, Gaga had found her musical niche when she began to incorporate pop melodies and the glam rock of David Bowie and Queen into her music.

While Gaga and Starlight were busy performing, producer Rob Fusari continued to work on the songs he had created with Gaga. Fusari sent these songs to his friend, producer and record executive Vincent Herbert. Herbert was quick to sign her to his label Streamline Records, an imprint of Interscope Records, upon its establishment in 2007. Gaga later credited Herbert as the man who discovered her, adding "I really feel like we made pop history, and we're gonna keep going." Having served as an apprentice songwriter under an internship at Famous Music Publishing, which was later acquired by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Gaga subsequently struck a music publishing deal with Sony/ATV. As a result, she was hired to write songs for Britney Spears and labelmates New Kids on the Block, Fergie, and the Pussycat Dolls. At Interscope, singer-songwriter Akon recognized her vocal abilities when she sang a reference vocal for one of his tracks in studio. Akon then convinced Interscope-Geffen-A&M; Chairman and CEO Jimmy Iovine to form a joint deal by having her also sign with his own label Kon Live, making her his "franchise player."

As 2007 came to a close, her former management company introduced her to songwriter and producer RedOne, whom they also managed. The first song she produced with RedOne was "Boys Boys Boys", a mash-up inspired by Mötley Crüe's "Girls, Girls, Girls" and AC/DC's "T.N.T.". Gaga continued her collaboration with RedOne in the recording studio for a week on her debut album and also joined the roster of Cherrytree Records, an Interscope imprint established by producer and songwriter Martin Kierszenbaum, after co-writing four songs with Kierszenbaum including the singles "Christmas Tree" and "Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)". Despite her secure record deal, she admitted that there was fear about her being too "racy", "dance-orientated" and "underground" for the mainstream market. Her response: "My name is Lady Gaga, I've been on the music scene for years, and I'm telling you, this is what's next."

2008–10: ''The Fame'' and ''The Fame Monster''

By 2008, Gaga had relocated to Los Angeles in order to work extensively with her record label to complete her debut album and set up her own creative team Haus of Gaga, modeled on Andy Warhol's Factory. ''The Fame'' was first released on August 19, 2008 to slow radio play. Gaga supported it by performing around Europe and in small gay clubs around the US in addition to being billed as a supporting artist on the North American leg of New Kids on the Block's reunion concert tour. A sleeper hit, lead single "Just Dance" had preceded the album's release by four months but only hit the summit of the international charts in January 2009, provoking the instant success of the album, earning her first Grammy Award nomination (for Best Dance Recording) and becoming one of the best-selling singles worldwide. Gaga achieved a greater unexpected success when "Poker Face", another sleeper hit, reached number one in most major music markets worldwide in early 2009, selling 9.8 million singles worldwide. The follow-up single won the award for Best Dance Recording at the 52nd Grammy Awards over nominations for Song of the Year and Record of the Year.

''The Fame'' itself was nominated for Album of the Year while winning Best Dance/Electronica Album at the same ceremony. Contemporary critics lauded the album, describing it as an exploration of her obsession with fame and the intricacies of a rich and famous lifestyle, noting its combination of genres "from Def Leppard drums and hand claps to metal drums on urban tracks", the inspiration drawn from 1980s synthpop and incorporation of dance music with clear hooks. ''The Fame'' went to number one in Austria, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland and the UK and appeared in the top five in Australia, the US and 15 other countries. It also stayed atop the Dance/Electronic Albums chart for 106 non-consecutive weeks and, since its release, has sold over 12 million copies worldwide. The album's success spawned many 2009 honors including ''Billboard'' magazine's Rising Star award and the accumulation of 3 of 9 MTV Video Music Awards nominations, winning Best New Artist with the video for her single "Paparazzi" gaining Best Art Direction and Best Special Effects. In addition to being an opening act on the Pussycat Dolls' Doll Domination Tour during the first half of 2009 in Europe and Oceania, she also embarked on her own six-month critically appreciated worldwide concert tour The Fame Ball Tour which ran from March to September 2009.

While she traveled the globe, she wrote ''The Fame Monster'', an EP of eight songs released in November 2009. Each song, dealing with the darker side of fame from personal experience, is expressed through a monster metaphor. Making Gaga the first artist in digital history to have three singles (alongside "Just Dance" and "Poker Face") to pass the four million mark in digital sales, its lead single "Bad Romance" topped the charts in eighteen countries and reached the top two in the US, Australia and New Zealand while accruing the Grammy Awards for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Best Short Form Music Video. The second single "Telephone", which features singer Beyoncé, was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals and became Gaga's fourth UK number one single; its accompanying music video, although controversial, receiving positive reception from contemporary critics who praised her for "the musicality and showmanship of Michael Jackson and the powerful sexuality and provocative instincts of Madonna." Her following single "Alejandro" paired Gaga with fashion photographer Steven Klein for a music video similarly as controversial – critics complimented its ideas and dark nature but the Catholic League attacked Gaga for her alleged use of blasphemy. Despite the controversy surrounding her music videos, they made Gaga the first artist to gain over one billion viral views on video-sharing website YouTube. At the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, Gaga won 8 of her 13 nominations, including Video of the Year for "Bad Romance" (with "Telephone" also nominated), which made her the first female artist to be nominated twice for the award. In addition, ''The Fame Monster'' garnered a total of six nominations at the 53rd Grammy Awards – equating to the amount of Grammy nominations her debut received – winning Best Pop Vocal Album and earning her a second-consecutive nomination for Album of the Year.

The success of the album allowed Gaga to start her second worldwide concert tour, The Monster Ball Tour, just weeks after the release of ''The Fame Monster'' and months after having finished The Fame Ball Tour. Upon finishing in May 2011, the critically acclaimed and commercially accomplished tour ran for over one and a half years and grossed $227.4 million, making it one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time and the highest-grossing for a debut headlining artist. Concerts performed at Madison Square Garden in New York City were filmed for a HBO television special titled ''Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden''. The special accrued one of its five Emmy Award nominations and has since been released on DVD and Blu-ray. Gaga also performed songs from the album at international events such as the 2009 Royal Variety Performance where she sang "Speechless", a power ballad, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II; the 52nd Grammy Awards where her opening performance consisted of the song "Poker Face" and a piano duet of "Speechless" in a medley of "Your Song" with Elton John; and the 2010 BRIT Awards where a performance of an acoustic rendition of "Telephone" followed by "Dance in the Dark" dedicated to the late fashion designer and close friend, Alexander McQueen, supplemented her hat-trick win at the awards ceremony. Other performances may have included her participation in Michael Jackson's This Is It concert series at London's O2 Arena. "I was actually asked to open for Michael on his tour," she stated. "We were going to open for him at the O2 and we were working on making it happen. I believe there was some talk about us, lots of the openers, doing duets with Michael on stage."

Nevertheless, she realized a collaboration with consumer electronic company Beats by Dr. Dre to create a pair of in-ear jewel-encrusted headphones titled Heartbeats. "They are designed to be the first ever fashion accessories that double as the absolute best sonically sounding headphones in the world," she commented. Gaga also partnered with Polaroid in January 2010 as their Creative Director. Excited about "blending the iconic history of Polaroid and instant film with the digital era," Gaga unveiled the first trio of new products called Grey Label: a pair of picture-taking sunglasses, a paperback-sized mobile printing unit and an updated version of the traditional Polaroid camera at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show. But her collaboration with past producer Rob Fusari led to her production team, Mermaid Music LLC, being sued in March 2010 when he claimed that he was entitled to a 20% share of the company's earnings. Gaga's lawyer, Charles Ortner, described the agreement with Fusari as "unlawful" and declined to comment, but five months later, the New York Supreme Court dismissed both the lawsuit and a countersuit by Gaga. In addition to such strife, Gaga was tested borderline positive for lupus, but claimed not to be affected by the symptoms. The revelations caused considerable dismay among fans, leading to Gaga addressing the matter in an interview with Larry King, saying she hopes to avoid symptoms by maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

2011–present: ''Born This Way''

Gaga released her second studio album and third major release, ''Born This Way'', on May 23, 2011. Described as a marriage of electronic music with metal, rock 'n' roll, pop and anthemic style melodies with sledge-hammering dance beats and referred to as an album "about what what keeps us up at night and what makes us afraid," Gaga characterized it as "something so much deeper than a wig or lipstick or a fucking meat dress" and, upon hearing it, Akon remarked that she is taking music to the "next level." Upon release, the album received generally positive reviews from music critics, who praised its range of different styles and her vocals. ''Born This Way'' sold 1.108 million copies in its first week in the US, debuted atop the ''Billboard'' 200, and topped the charts in more than 20 other countries. In addition to exceeding 8 million copies in worldwide sales, ''Born This Way'' received 3 Grammy Award nominations, including her third consecutive for Album of the Year.

In the months prior to its unveiling, Gaga released the singles "Born This Way", "Judas" and "The Edge of Glory" alongside promotional single "Hair". The eponymous lead single, first sung live at the 53rd Grammy Awards in a performance that saw Gaga emerge from an egg-like vessel, deals with self-acceptance regardless of race or sexual orientation. The single debuted atop the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, becoming the 19th number-one debut and the 1,000th number-one single in the history of the charts. It sold more than 3 million digital copies in the US by October 2011, becoming her eighth consecutive single to exceed sales of 2 million and, with worldwide sales of 8.2 million copies by November 2011, one of her five best-selling singles worldwide. Critics noted artistic and cultural references and praised the concept of the song's accompanying music video, in which Gaga gives birth to a new race amidst surrealistic images. The video for "Judas", in which Gaga portrays Mary Magdalene, and Biblical figures such as Jesus Christ and Judas Iscariot are also featured, was criticized for its religious references but received acclaim for its overall delivery and praise from others who claimed that there was nothing offensive about it. "Judas" also peaked within the top ten in several major musical markets, while "The Edge of Glory", first a commercial success in digital outlets, was later released as a single to critical appreciation, accompanied by a video which was notably stripped down from her usually "extravagant" efforts. She released "You and I" and "Marry the Night" as the following singles from ''Born This Way''. Although their "crazy and ambitious" videos were praised for their audacity, both songs failed to match the similar international success that their predecessors achieved.

Gaga continued her musical endeavors by pairing with veteran artists like Tony Bennett to record a jazz version of "The Lady Is a Tramp". She also recorded a duet with Cher on a "massive" and "beautiful" track, which Gaga "wrote a long time ago, and I've never put it on one of my own albums for, really, no particular reason." Gaga also lent her vocals to an original duet with Elton John for the animated feature film ''Gnomeo & Juliet''. The song, "Hello, Hello", was released without Gaga's vocals but the duet version features in the film. She also continued her live appearances throughout 2011, performing a one-of-a-kind concert at the Sydney Town Hall on July 13 in promotion of ''Born This Way'' and at the celebration of former US president Bill Clinton's 65th birthday, wearing a blond wig as a nod to the famous performance of Marilyn Monroe for John F. Kennedy and changing the lyrics to "You and I" specifically for the performance. Televised appearances comprised her own Thanksgiving Day television special entitled ''A Very Gaga Thanksgiving'' which was critically lauded, attained 5.749 million American viewers, and spawned the release of her fourth extended play ''A Very Gaga Holiday''. Her second performance on ''Saturday Night Live'' saw her singing a selection of ''Born This Way'' songs alongside appearing in number of sketches with Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg. In March 2012, Gaga was ranked at number four on ''Billboard'''s list of top moneymakers of 2011, grossing $25,353,039 dollars, which includes sales from ''Born This Way'' and her ''Monster Ball Tour''.

In early 2012, Gaga stated that songs for a new album were "beginning to flourish" as she worked with producer Fernando Garibay, while the accompanying tour for ''Born This Way'' was materializing. The Born This Way Ball Tour is set to begin on April 27, 2012, at the Olympic Stadium in Seoul, South Korea.

Artistry

Influences

Gaga's parents, who exposed her to artists like The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Elton John, had significant influence on her childhood and, presently, still do. "I am a real family girl. When it comes to love and loyalty, I am very old-fashioned. And I am quite down-to-earth for such an eccentric person," she insists. "I'm quite traditional in the family sense. I've always been that way." According to Gaga, Joanne Germanotta – her aunt who died of lupus aged 19 – lives on through her and inspires all of her music and art. Joanne's date of death is tattooed on Gaga's body and, despite dying 12 years before her birth, Gaga commented, "I really believe I have two hearts. I think I actually carry two souls in my body, and that I'm living out the rest of her life and her goodness – she died a virgin, she died never having experienced all these things that we all get to love and experience in our lives." Another spiritual influence on Gaga has been the Indian physician, public speaker and writer Deepak Chopra. Labeling him a "true inspiration", she stated that "he's always reminded me to work in a life of service to my fans and to fulfill my vision and my destiny" in addition to thinking about Chopra when it comes to her work as a musician: "I want so much for it to go beyond the music for my fans."

Musically, Gaga takes influence from numerous musicians from dance-pop singers like Madonna and Michael Jackson to glam rock artists like David Bowie and Queen whilst employing the theatrics of artists like Andy Warhol and of her musical theatre roots in performance. The Queen song "Radio Ga Ga" inspired her stage name: "I adored Freddie Mercury and Queen had a hit called 'Radio Gaga'. That's why I love the name [...] Freddie was unique—one of the biggest personalities in the whole of pop music," she commented. Gaga receives regular comparisons to recording artist Madonna who admits that she sees herself reflected in Gaga. In response to the comparisons, Gaga stated, "I don't want to sound presumptuous, but I've made it my goal to revolutionize pop music. The last revolution was launched by Madonna 25 years ago" in addition to commenting that "there is really no one that is a more adoring and loving Madonna fan than me. I am the hugest fan personally and professionally." Like Madonna, Gaga has continued to reinvent herself and, over the years of her career, has drawn musical inspiration from a diverse mix of artists including Whitney Houston, Britney Spears, Grace Jones, Cyndi Lauper, Blondie singer Debbie Harry, Scissor Sisters, Prince, Marilyn Manson and Yoko Ono.

Gaga has identified fashion as a major influence and has been stylistically compared to English eccentrics Leigh Bowery and Isabella Blow and to American recording artist Cher. She commented that "as a child, she somehow absorbed Cher's out-there fashion sense and made it her own." She has considered Donatella Versace her muse and the late British fashion designer and close friend Alexander McQueen as an inspiration, admitting that "I miss Lee every time I get dressed" while channeling him in some of her work. Modeled on Andy Warhol's Factory, Gaga has her own creative production team, which she handles personally, called the Haus of Gaga, who create many of her clothes, stage props, and hairdos. Her adoration of fashion came from her mother, who she stated was "always very well kept and beautiful." "When I'm writing music, I'm thinking about the clothes I want to wear on stage. It's all about everything altogether—performance art, pop performance art, fashion. For me, it's everything coming together and being a real story that will bring back the super-fan. I want to bring that back. I want the imagery to be so strong that fans will want to eat and taste and lick every part of us." The Global Language Monitor named "Lady Gaga" as the Top Fashion Buzzword with her trademark "no pants" a close third. ''Entertainment Weekly'' put her outfits on its end of the decade "best-of" list, saying, "Whether it's a dress made of Muppets or strategically placed bubbles, Gaga's outré ensembles brought performance art into the mainstream." Gaga made her runway debut at Thierry Mugler's Paris fashion show in March 2011 where she wore items from Nicola Formichetti's debut women's wear collection. In June of the same year, she won the Council of Fashion Designers of America Award for Fashion Icon. She has since devoted her time as a fashion columnist for ''V'' magazine, where she has written about her creative process, her studying of the world of pop culture, and her ability to tune into the evolution of pop-culture meme.

In August 2011 she sent to her 15 millions followers that she had at that time on Twitter, a quote about creativity from the book "Creativity" by Osho, which led journalists, on 28 october of the same year, on her arrival to India for the inauguration of a big Formula One motorsport event, to ask her about her connection to him, to which Gaga said she was influenced by his work and that for her, "the creativity is the greatest way of rebellion": "Equality", she concluded, "is one of the most important things in my life".

Musical style

Continually experimenting with new musical ideas and images, Gaga's musical and performance style is the subject of much analysis and scrutiny from critics. She professes that she is "liberating" herself by constantly reinventing her sound and image, insisting that she has been drawn to such a practice since her childhood. Vocally, Gaga possesses the range of a contralto and exhibits "overwhelming expression, instinctive vocal phrasing, '80s rock reminiscent chest belts and animalistic vocal ticks" while being able to move through 2.4 octaves. Refusing to lip sync, Gaga – whose range is frequently compared to those of Madonna and Gwen Stefani – has manipulated her vocal style over the course of her career yet considers ''Born This Way'' (2011) "much more vocally up to par with what I've always been capable of." In summation of her voice, ''Entertainment Weekly'' wrote, "There's an immense emotional intelligence behind the way she uses her voice. Almost never does she overwhelm a song with her vocal ability, recognizing instead that artistry is to be found in nuance rather than lung power."

Although her early lyrics have been criticized for lacking intellectual stimulation, "[Gaga] does manage to get you moving and grooving at an almost effortless pace." She admits that her songwriting has been misinterpreted; her friend and blogger Perez Hilton articulated her message in a clearer way: "you write really deep intelligent lyrics with shallow concepts." Gaga opined, "Perez is very intelligent and clearly listened to my record from beginning to end, and he is correct." "I love songwriting. It's so funny – I will just jam around in my underwear or I could be washing my dishes. I wrote several songs just at the piano," she confesses. Gaga believes that "all good music can be played at a piano and still sound like a hit." She has covered a wide variety of topics in her songs: while ''The Fame'' (2008) meditates on the lust for stardom, ''The Fame Monster'' (2009) expresses fame's dark side through monster metaphors. ''Born This Way'' (2011) is sung in English, French, German and Spanish and includes common themes in Gaga's controversial songwriting like love, sex, religion, money, drugs, identity, liberation, sexuality, freedom and individualism.

The structure of her music is said to echo classic 1980s pop and 1990s Europop. Her debut album ''The Fame'' (2008) provoked ''The Sunday Times'' to assert "in combining music, fashion, art and technology, [Gaga] evokes Madonna, Gwen Stefani circa 'Hollaback Girl', Kylie Minogue 2001 or Grace Jones right now" and a critic from ''The Boston Globe'' to comment that she draws "obvious inspirations from Madonna to Gwen Stefani... in [her] girlish but sturdy pipes and bubbly beats." Music critic Simon Reynolds wrote that "Everything about Gaga came from electroclash, except the music, which wasn't particularly 1980s, just ruthlessly catchy naughties pop glazed with Auto-Tune and undergirded with R&B;-ish beats." The follow-up ''The Fame Monster'' (2009), saw Gaga's taste for pastiche, drawing on "Seventies arena glam, perky ABBA disco and sugary throwbacks like Stacey Q" while ''Born This Way'' (2011) also draws on the records of her childhood and still has the "electro-sleaze beats and Eurodisco chorus chants" of its predecessor but includes genres as diverse as opera, heavy metal, disco, and rock and roll. "There isn't a subtle moment on the album, but even at its nuttiest, the music is full of wide-awake emotional details," wrote ''Rolling Stone'', who concluded: "The more excessive Gaga gets, the more honest she sounds."

Music videos and performances

With constant costume changes, backup dancers, and provocative visuals, Gaga's music videos are often described as short films. "Being provocative is not just about getting people's attention. It's about saying something that really affects people in a real way, in a positive way," she professes. Exploring bondage and sadomasochism in addition to highlighting prevalent feminist themes, "the three central themes that shape Lady Gaga's music videos are sex, violence, and power." "Vaudevillian and carnal, Lady Gaga has got the knack of sending rape-like fantasies—in songs and videos that double as catch club hits—to the top of the charts," wrote one critic. "Whether it is physical violence or sexual exploitation, these videos offer vivid depictions of male power over women's bodies," wrote another. While she labels herself "a little bit of a feminist" (she rejects man-hating feminism) and asserts that she is "sexually empowering women," Gaga strives to empower young women to stand up for what they believe in. She also attempts to liberate her fans so they can feel "less alone." "She not only reiterates her assertion of total originality," professed pop critic Ann Powers, "but also finesses it until it's both a philosophical stance about how constructing a persona from pop-cultural sources can be an expression of a person's truth—a la those drag queens Gaga sincerely admires—and a bit of a feminist act." In summation of her videos, ''Rolling Stone'' used the rhetoric: "does anyone look to a Lady Gaga video for restraint?"

Her performances are described as "highly entertaining and innovative"; the blood-spurting performance of "Paparazzi" at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards was described as "eye-popping" by MTV. She continued the "blood soaked" theme during The Monster Ball Tour, in which she wore a revealing leather corset and was "attacked" by a performer dressed in black who gnaws on her throat, causing "blood" to spurt down her chest, after which she lies "dying" in a pool of blood. Her performances of that scene in England triggered protests from family groups and fans in the aftermath of a local tragedy, in which a taxi driver had murdered 12 people. "What happened in Bradford is very fresh in people's minds and given all the violence which happened in Cumbria just hours earlier, it was insensitive," said Lynn Costello of Mothers Against Violence. Her unconventionality continued at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards: performing in drag as her male alter ego, Jo Calderone, and delivering a lovesick monologue before a performance of her song "You and I". Some have defended her flamboyant and provocative behavior. "Well, she's Lady Gaga," Chris Rock said. "She's not 'Lady Behave Yourself.' Do you want great behavior from a person named Gaga? Is this what you were expecting?" As Gaga's choreographer and creative director, Laurieann Gibson provided material for her shows and videos for four years. However, the pair parted in November 2011; Gaga replacing her with Gibson's assistant Richard Jackson. Gaga admits to being a perfectionist when it comes to her elaborate shows. "I'm very bossy. I can scream my head off if I see one light fixture out. I'm very detailed – every minute of the show has got to be perfect."

Public image

While ''Rolling Stone'' named Gaga the "Queen of Pop" in 2011, public reception of Gaga's music, fashion sense and persona are mixed. Her status as a role model, self-esteem booster for her fans, trailblazer and fashion icon who breathes new life into the industry is by turns affirmed and denied. Gaga's albums have received mostly positive reviews and critics have pointed out her unique place in pop music, the need for new movements in popular culture, the attention Gaga brings to modern social issues, and the inherently subjective nature of her art. In view of her influence on modern culture and her rise to global fame, sociologist Mathieu Deflem of the University of South Carolina has organized a course titled "Lady Gaga and the Sociology of Fame" since spring 2011 with the objective of unravelling "some of the sociologically relevant dimensions of the fame of Lady Gaga." When Gaga briefly met with US president Barack Obama at a Human Rights Campaign fundraiser, he described the interaction as "intimidating" as she was dressed in 16-inch heels making her undoubtedly the tallest woman in the room.

Contrary to her outré style, the ''New York Post'' described her early look as like "a refugee from ''Jersey Shore''" with "big black hair, heavy eye makeup and tight, revealing clothes." Gaga is a natural brunette; she bleached her hair blonde because she was often mistaken for Amy Winehouse. She has nine tattoos on the left side of her body (her father has banned etchings on her right): a unicorn head with a ribbon wrapped around its horn that says "Born This Way"; a small heart with "dad" written inside it; several white roses; a treble clef; three daises; "Tokyo Love" with a little heart; "Little Monsters" written in cursive; a peace symbol, which was inspired by John Lennon, whom she stated was her hero; and a curling German script on her left arm quoting the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, her favorite writer, commenting that his "philosophy of solitude" spoke to her. In a question posed about the necessary procedure to attach the prosthetics to give the unconventional appearance of recent horn-like ridges on her cheekbones, temples, and shoulders, Gaga responded, "They're not prosthetics, they're my bones." She also clarified that they were not the result of plastic surgery, believing such surgery to only be the modern byproduct of fame-induced insecurity to which she does not subscribe. The interviewer's further probing brought Gaga to the conclusion that they are an artistic representation of her inner inspirational light and part of the "performance piece" that is her musical persona: an inevitability of her becoming who she now is.

Towards the end of 2008, comparisons were made between the fashions of Gaga and recording artist Christina Aguilera that noted similarities in their styling, hair, and make-up. Aguilera stated that she was "completely unaware of [Gaga]" and "didn't know if it [was] a man or a woman." Gaga released a statement in which she welcomed the comparisons due to the attention providing useful publicity, saying, "She's such a huge star and if anything I should send her flowers, because a lot of people in America didn't know who I was until that whole thing happened. It really put me on the map in a way." When interviewed by Barbara Walters for her annual ABC News special ''10 Most Fascinating People'' in 2009, Gaga dismissed the claim that she is intersex as an urban legend. Responding to a question on this issue, she stated, "At first it was very strange and everyone sorta said, 'That's really quite a story!' But in a sense, I portray myself in a very androgynous way, and I love androgyny." In addition to Aguilera's statement, comparisons continued into 2010, when Aguilera released the music video of her single "Not Myself Tonight". Critics noted similarities between the song and its accompanying music video with Gaga's video for "Bad Romance". There have also been similar comparisons made between Gaga's style and that of fashion icon Dale Bozzio from the band Missing Persons. Some have considered their respective images to be strikingly parallel although fans of Missing Persons note that Bozzio had pioneered the look more than thirty years earlier. ''Time Magazine'' placed Gaga on their "All-Time 100 Fashion Icons List" amongst some of Gaga's inspirations such as Micheal Jackson, Madonna, and the The Beatles, stating: "Lady Gaga is just as notorious for her outrageous style as she is for her pop hits. After all, Gaga, born Stefani Germanotta, has sported outfits made from plastic bubbles, Kermit the Frog dolls, and raw meat."

While devout followers call Gaga "Mother Monster", Gaga often refers to her fans as "Little Monsters" which has been tattooed on "the arm that holds my mic" in dedication. Her treatment of her "Little Monsters" has inspired criticism, due to the highly commercial nature of her music and image. To some, this dichotomy contravenes the concept of outsider culture. Camille Paglia in her 2010 cover story "Lady Gaga and the death of sex" in ''The Sunday Times'' asserts that Gaga "is more an identity thief than an erotic taboo breaker, a mainstream manufactured product who claims to be singing for the freaks, the rebellious and the dispossessed when she is none of those." Writing for ''The Guardian'', Kitty Empire opined that the dichotomy "...allows the viewer to have a 'transgressive' experience without being required to think. At [her performance's] core, though, is the idea that Gaga is at one with the freaks and outcasts. The Monster Ball is where we can all be free. This is arrant nonsense, as the scads of people buying Gaga's cunningly commercial music are not limited to the niche worlds of drag queens and hip night creatures from which she draws her inspiration. But Gaga seems sincere."

Philanthropy

Besides her career in music, Gaga has also contributed to various charities. For natural disasters, Gaga has helped various relief efforts. Although declining an invitation to appear on the single "We Are the World 25" to benefit victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, she donated the proceeds of her January 24, 2010 concert at New York's Radio City Music Hall to the country's reconstruction relief fund. All profits from her official online store on that day were also donated. Gaga announced that an estimated total of US$500,000 was collected for the fund. Hours after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami hit Japan on March 11, 2011, Gaga tweeted a message and a link to Japan Prayer Bracelets. All revenue from a bracelet she designed in conjunction with the company was donated to relief efforts. As of March 29, 2011, the bracelets raised $1.5 million. However, attorney Alyson Oliver filed a lawsuit against Gaga in Detroit in June 2011, noting that the bracelet was subject to a sales tax and an extra $3.99 shipping charge was added to the price. She also believed that not all proceeds from the bracelets would go to the relief efforts, demanding a public accounting of the campaign and refunds for people who had bought the bracelet. Gaga's spokesperson called the lawsuit "meritless" and "misleading". On June 25, 2011, Gaga performed at MTV Japan's charity show in Makuhari Messe, which benefited the Japanese Red Cross.

HIV and AIDS

Gaga also contributes in the fight against HIV and AIDS, focusing on educating young women about the risks of the disease. In collaboration with Cyndi Lauper, Gaga joined forces with MAC Cosmetics to launch a line of lipstick under their supplementary cosmetic line, Viva Glam. Titled Viva Glam Gaga and Viva Glam Cyndi for each contributor respectively, all net proceeds of the lipstick line were donated to the cosmetic company's campaign to prevent HIV and AIDS worldwide. In a press release, Gaga declared, "I don't want Viva Glam to be just a lipstick you buy to help a cause. I want it to be a reminder when you go out at night to put a condom in your purse right next to your lipstick." The sales of Gaga-endorsed Viva Glam lipstick and lipgloss have raised more than $202 million to fight HIV and AIDS.

Born This Way Foundation

As a humanitarian, she has launched her own non-profit organization, the Born This Way Foundation, which focuses on youth empowerment and issues like self-confidence, well-being, anti-bullying, mentoring, and career development. "My mother and I have initiated a passion project. We call it the Born This Way Foundation," Gaga said in a statement about the foundation, which takes its name from the 2011 single and album. "Together we hope to establish a standard of Bravery and Kindness, as well as a community worldwide that protects and nurtures others in the face of bullying and abandonment." The foundation will work with a number of partners, including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The California Endowment and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. She also jumped into the debate surrounding SB 1070, Arizona's recently-enacted anti-immigration law, after premiering her ''Born This Way'' song "Americano" on the Guadalajara stop of The Monster Ball Tour in Mexico, telling the local press that she could not "stand by many of the unjust immigration laws" in the US. A devoted advocate for the LGBT community, Gaga is also an outspoken activist for LGBT rights worldwide. On February 29, 2012, Gaga and Oprah Winfrey visited Harvard University to launch her Born This Way Foundation.

LGBT advocacy

Gaga attributes much of her early success as a mainstream artist to her gay fans and is considered to be a gay icon. Early in her career she had difficulty getting radio airplay, and stated, "The turning point for me was the gay community. I've got so many gay fans and they're so loyal to me and they really lifted me up. They'll always stand by me and I'll always stand by them. It's not an easy thing to create a fanbase." She thanked FlyLife, a Manhattan-based LGBT marketing company with whom her label Interscope works, in the liner notes of ''The Fame'', saying, "I love you so much. You were the first heartbeat in this project, and your support and brilliance means the world to me. I will always fight for the gay community hand in hand with this incredible team." One of her first televised performances was in May 2008 at the NewNowNext Awards, an awards show aired by the LGBT television network Logo, where she sang her song "Just Dance". In June of the same year, she performed the song again at the San Francisco Pride event.

After ''The Fame'' was released, she revealed that the song "Poker Face" was about her bisexuality. In an interview with ''Rolling Stone'', she spoke about how her boyfriends tended to react to her bisexuality, saying "The fact that I'm into women, they're all intimidated by it. It makes them uncomfortable. They're like, 'I don't need to have a threesome. I'm happy with just you'." When she appeared as a guest on ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' in May 2009, she praised DeGeneres for being "an inspiration for women and for the gay community". She proclaimed that the October 11, 2009 National Equality March rally on the National Mall was "the single most important event of her career." As she exited, she left with an exultant "Bless God and bless the gays," similar to her 2009 MTV Video Music Awards acceptance speech for Best New Artist a month earlier. At the Human Rights Campaign Dinner, held the same weekend as the rally, she performed a cover of John Lennon's "Imagine" declaring that "I'm not going to [play] one of my songs tonight because tonight is not about me, it's about you." She changed the original lyrics of the song to reflect the death of Matthew Shepard, a college student murdered because of his sexuality.

Gaga attended the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards accompanied by four service members of the United States Armed Forces (Mike Almy, David Hall, Katie Miller and Stacy Vasquez), all of whom, under the United States military's "Don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) policy, had been prohibited from serving openly because of their sexuality. In addition, Gaga wore a meat dress to the ceremony which was supplemented by boots, a purse and a hat that were all fabricated from the flesh of a dead animal. Partly awarded in recognition of the dress, Vogue.com UK named her one of the Best Dressed people of 2010 while ''Time'' magazine's named the dress the Fashion Statement of 2010, it received divided opinions – evoking the attention of worldwide media but invoking the fury of animal rights organization PETA. She denied any intention of causing disrespect to any person or organization and wished for the dress to be interpreted as a statement of human rights with focus upon those in the LGBT community, adding that "If we don't stand up for what we believe in and if we don't fight for our rights, pretty soon we're going to have as much rights as the meat on our own bones."

She later released three videos on YouTube urging her fans to contact their Senators in an effort to overturn the policy. In late September 2010 she spoke at the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network's "4the14K" Rally in Deering Oaks Park in Portland, Maine. The name of the rally signified the number – an estimated 14,000 – of service members discharged under the DADT policy at the time. During her remarks, she urged members of the U.S. Senate (and in particular, moderate Republican Senators from Maine, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins) to vote in favor of legislation that would repeal the DADT policy. Following this event, editors of ''The Advocate'' commented that she had become "the real fierce advocate" for gays and lesbians, one that Barack Obama had promised to be.

Gaga appeared at Europride, a pan-European international event dedicated to LGBT pride, held in Rome in June 2011. In a nearly twenty-minute speech, she criticized the intolerant state of gay rights in many European countries and described homosexuals as "revolutionaries of love" before performing acoustic renderings of "Born This Way" and "The Edge of Glory" in front of thousands at the Circus Maximus. She stated that "Today and every day we fight for freedom. We fight for justice. We beckon for compassion, understanding and above all we want full equality now". Gaga revealed that she is often questioned why she dedicates herself to "gayspeak" and "how gay" she is, to which, she told the audience: "Why is this question, why is this issue so important? My answer is: I am a child of diversity, I am one with my generation, I feel a moral obligation as a woman, or a man, to exercise my revolutionary potential and make the world a better place." She then joked: "On a gay scale from 1 to 10, I'm a Judy Garland fucking 42."

Discography

''The Fame'' (2008)

''The Fame Monster'' (2009)

''Born This Way'' (2011)

Filmography

''Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden'' (2011)

''A Very Gaga Thanksgiving'' (2011)

Concert tours

The Fame Ball Tour (2009)

Fame Kills: Starring Kanye West and Lady Gaga (2009–10) (canceled)

The Monster Ball Tour (2009–11)

The Born This Way Ball Tour (2012–13)

See also

List of awards and nominations received by Lady Gaga

Honorific nicknames in popular music

List of best-selling music artists

References

Further reading

Monster Anthems (2011) by Robert Christgau

External links

Slide show ''Vanity Fair''

Category:1986 births Category:American contraltos Category:American dance musicians Category:American electronic musicians Category:American female pop singers Category:American musicians of Italian descent Category:American performance artists Category:American pop singer-songwriters Category:American Roman Catholics Category:Androgyny Category:Bisexual musicians Category:Brit Award winners Category:Echo winners Category:English-language singers Category:Feminist musicians Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Interscope Records artists Category:Keytarists Category:LGBT Christians Category:LGBT musicians from the United States Category:LGBT rights activists from the United States Category:LGBT rights activists Category:Living people Category:NME Awards winners Category:American dancers Category:People from Manhattan Category:Pseudonymous musicians Category:Singers from New York City Category:Sony/ATV Music Publishing artists Category:Synthpop musicians Category:Tisch School of the Arts alumni Category:Wonky Pop acts

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