her sakaldan bir tel çekseler köseye sakal olur

Turkish

Etymology

Morphologically her (“every”) +‎ sakal (“beard”) +‎ -dan (ablative suffix) +‎ bir (“one; a”) +‎ tel (“strand, wire”) +‎ çek- (“to pull”) +‎ -se (conditional suffix) +‎ -ler (third-person plural suffix) +‎ köse (“hairless, beardless”) +‎ -ye (dative suffix) +‎ sakal +‎ ol- (“to be, to become”) +‎ -ur (third-person singular aorist suffix). Literally, “if they pull one strand from every beard, it would be a beard for the beardless person”.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /heɾ sa.kal.dan biɾ tel t͡ʃek.se.leɾ kø.se.je saˈkal o.luɾ/
• Hyphenation: her‧sa‧kal‧dan‧bir‧tel‧çek‧se‧ler‧kö‧se‧ye‧sa‧kal‧o‧lur

Phrase

her sakaldan bir tel çekseler köseye sakal olur (idiomatic)

1. If everyone contributes a little, someone who has nothing can be helped

References

• “her sakaldan bir tel çekseler köseye sakal olur”, in Turkish dictionaries, Türk Dil Kurumu