TURKISH CONSONANTS

The production of alveolar sounds involes tongue tip or blade and the alveolar ridge. The initial sounds of the words dede, temel, sen, zümrüt, neden, limon, rahat are alveolar consonants. Hence, to produce /t/, /d/, /s/, /z/, /n/, /l/, /ɾ/ the tip or the blade of the tongue is on the alveolar ridge.

The production of velar sounds involves the back of the tongue and the velum (or the soft palate). To produce /k/ and /g/ as the initial consonants of the words kapı and garson, the back of your tongue raises towards the soft palate. Because they are formed at the velum, these sounds are called velar.

Stops are produced with complete obstruction in the oral tract with a raised velum. To form a stop, the air is stopped somewhere in the oral tract so that the airstream cannot escape from the mouth. The velum is raised so that air cannot escape from the nose either. Stop sounds of Turkish are /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/.

Fricatives are produced with partial obstruction in the vocal tract. Two articulators get close together so that a narrow passage is formed between them. As the air goes through that narrow passage, turbulence is produced causing friction. Hence sounds produced this way are called fricatives. Fricative sounds of Turkish are /f/, /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /h/.

Below are the allophones of Turkish /g/: a. voiced velar stop [g] occurs with the vowels a, ı, o, u as in gaz, gırtlak, gofret, gurul. b. voiced palatal stop [ɟ]occurs with the vowels e, i, ö, ü as in gez, gizem, göl, gürül.

The production of palato-alveolar sounds involves tongue blade and back of the alveolar ridge. The initial sounds in words such as şeker, jip, çilek, can are /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/, respectively. These consonants are produced with the tongue blade in a space between the alveolar ridge and the palate.

Consonants are produced by blocking the air partially or completely at some point in the vocal tract.

The production of glottal sounds involves the glottis. The space between the vocal cords is called the glottis. /h/ as the initial sound of han is a glottal sound as the air coming out of the lungs passes through the vocal cords and goes out of the mouth without any obstruction in the vocal tract.

Place of Articulation refers to where in the vocal tract consonants are produced.

A tap (or flap) sound is produced with a single tap against the alveolar ridge. The Turkish ‘r’ is represented by the IPA symbol /ɾ/ and is defined as a flap whereby the tip of the tongue makes a single tap against the alveolar ridge. Notice what you do with your tongue when you say the word ‘ara’. The tongue rapidly taps against the alveolar ridge. Flap also occurs in American English in the medial position of words such as latter and ladder, causing both words to be pronounced the same way.

Voicing is defined as the presence or absence of vocal cord vibration. Vocal cords are two muscular folds within the larynx behind the Adam’s apple. You can manipulate your vocal cords by opening and closing them. The air that comes out of the lungs goes up through the trachea into the larynx and between the vocal cords. As the air passes between the vocal cords, vocal cords may be apart or close together. If the vocal cords are apart, the air passes through the vocal cords freely. If the vocal cords are close together, then there is a narrow passage between them which causes a build up of air pressure. This air pressure in turn causes vocal cords to vibrate. If the vocal cords vibrate in the production of sounds, then those sounds are voiced. If the vocal cords do not vibrate, then those sounds are voiceless. Voicing is important in distinguishing sounds because there are pairs of sounds which are formed in the same way and in the same place and the only difference between such sounds is voicing; one sound being voiced and the other voiceless.

Affricates are formed by combining a stop and a fricative. The affricate starts with a stop which is immediately followed by a fricative as in the words çay and cam. The initial sound of çay is an affricate which starts with the stop /t/ followed by the fricative /ʃ/. Similarly, the initial sound of cam starts with [d] followed by /ʒ/. The affricates of Turkish are /tʃ/ and /dʒ/.

Manner of Articulation refers to how airstream is manipulated or how consonats are produced in the vocal tract.

Oral tract is used to produce oral sounds which require the air to be let out of the oral tract or the mouth. Nasal tract is used to produce nasal sounds which require the air to be let out of the nasal tract or the nose. In Turkish, oral-nasal distinction exists for consonants. But languages such as French make a distinction between oral and nasal vowels as well.

Approximants are of two types depending on their airflow: • Central approximant: In the production of these sounds, air flows over the center of the tongue. In the production of [j], the sides of the tongue touch the roof of the mouth behind the sides of the teeth and the air flows over the center of the tongue. Therefore, [j] is called a central approximant. [ʋ] is a central approximant in Turkish as the lower teeth and upper lip come close together but not close enough to cause frication. • Lateral approximant: In the production of /l/, the tip/front of the tongue is at the alveolar ridge stopping the air from flowing over the center of the tongue. Instead, the air flows over the sides of the tongue. Hence /l/ is called a lateral approximant. English has two additional central approximant sounds. The initial sounds of the following words work, was, one is labiovelar central approximant /w/. The ‘r’ sound in English is also an alveolar central approximant symbolized as /ɹ/, different from that of Turkish.

The consonants of Turkish and English are similar. However, English has consonants that do not occur in Turkish such as /θ/, /ð/, /w/, /ɹ/, /ŋ/, /v/. • /θ/, and /ð/ are interdental fricatives produced with the tongue tip between the teeth as in the words ‘thumb’ and ‘those’ respectively. • /w/ is a labiovelar central approximant produced at the velum with the lips rounded – two simultaneous articulations, one at the velum and the other at the lips. Examles of words containing /w/ are white, war, whale. • /ɹ/, the initial sound of words right, real’, rock is an alveolar central approximant. In the production of /ɹ/, the sides of the tongue is against the sides of the teeth. The air flows over the center of the tongue. Some speakers may curl back the tip of the tongue. There is also some degree of lip rounding in the production of /ɹ/. • /ŋ/ is a velar nasal produced by a complete obstruction in the oral tract by raising the back of the tongue to the velum. The words sing, rang, doing have [ŋ] as the final sound. [ŋ] is generally spelled as ‘-ng’ in English. The sound [ŋ] cannot occur in word-initial position in English. • The letter ‘v’ represents two different sounds in Turkish and English. Although the place of articulation is the same in the two languages, ‘v’, as discussed above, is a central approximant in Turkish but a fricative in English.

This is a debatable issue. Some argue that it is a distinct sound while others argue that it is not. But many agree that it has the function of lengthening the vowel preceding it. The difference between the members of the pairs such as ‘ada-ağda’, ‘tura-tuğra’, ‘yama-yağma’, etc., is the length of the vowels preceding ‘ğ ’. Thus, ‘ğ’ is not treated as a distinct consonant here.

Approximants are produced by the approximation of two articulators without a turbulent airstream. Two articulators get close together but not so close to form a narrow passage. As the passage is not narrowed to an extent that a turbulent airflow is produced, the airstream flows more freely without causing friction. Approximants in Turkish are /ʋ/, /j/ and /l/.

The production of palatal sounds involves front of the tongue and the hard palate. The initial sound of the words yıl and yöre is /j/. In producing this consonant, the front of your tongue is raised towards the hard palate. Hence, it is described as a palatal sound.

Based on manner of articulation, the following types of consonants are listed for Turkish: • Stop • Nasal • Fricative • Approximant: a. central approximant b. lateral approximant • Flap/Tap • Affricate

Below is the front-to-back listing of the articulators lined up in the upper part of the vocal tract: • the upper and lower lips • the upper and the lower teeth • the alveolar ridge: the little, rough, bumpy part sticking out behind the upper teeth • the hard palate: the hard, bony roof of the mouth • the soft palate (the velum): soft, muscly part of the palate which rises to shut off the nasal tract so that air exits through the mouth. When the velum is lowered, the air goes out the nose. • the uvula: the small appendage hanging down at the end of the velum. It is not used used to produce Turkish consonants. • the pharynx: The part between the uvula and the larynx. It is not used used to produce Turkish consonants. In the lower part of the mouth there is the tongue. In the production of consonants, different parts of the tongue (p: 17, Figure 2.3) are used depending on which part of the roof of the mouth is used.

Nasals are produced with complete obstruction in the oral tract with a lowered velum. In contrast to oral sounds, the velum is lowered in nsals so that the air escapes through the nose. Nasal sounds of Turkish are /m/ and /n/.

Below are the allophones of Turkish /l/: a. alveolar lateral approximant [l] occurs before e, i, ö, ü and word initially as in kel, kil, köle, kül and laf, lif, lokum, etc. b. velarized lateral approximant [ɬ] occurs before a, ı, o, u except word-initially as in kal, kıl, kola, kul.

Below are the allophones of Turkish /ʋ/: a. voiced labiodental friative [v] occurs after voiceless consonants as in cetvel, teşvik, etc. b. zero [Ø] occurs before labial consonants as in kovmak, sevmek, sövmek, etc. c. labiodental central approximant [ʋ] occurs elsewhere.

English /l/ also has the same two allophones, however the distribution of these allophones is different from that of Turkish. Similar to Turkish, [l] occurs with vowels such as i, e and [ɬ] with vowels such as a, o, and u. Unlike Turkish, [ɬ] occurs in word-final position regardless of the preceding vowel. Thus the final sound of words such as ‘kill’, ‘sell’, ‘male’ is pronounced as [ɬ].

The production of labiodental sounds involves lower lip and upper front teeth. The intial sounds in the words fare and vali are /f/ and /ʋ/. To produce these consonants, the lower lip is raised to touch the upper teeth. These sounds are therefore called labiodental sounds.

Consonants are described in terms of: • voicing (presence or absence of vocal cord vibration) • place of articulation (where in the vocal tract sounds are produced) • manner of articulation (how sounds are produced in terms of airflow)

The air passage above the larynx is known as the vocal tract. There are two cavities within the vocal tract: Oral tract and nasal tract (p: 16, Figure 2.1).

The production of bilabial sounds involves upper and lower lip. The initial sounds in the words bellek, pınar, masa are /b/, /p/, /m/ and they are produced by putting two lips together. Hence, these sounds are called bilabial sounds.

How are consonants classified based on their place of articulation? Answer: Based on place of articulation, the following types of consonants are listed: • Bilabial • Labiodental • Alveolar • Palato-alveolar • Palatal • Velar • Glottal These are the places of articulation used for Turkish consonants. There are other places of articulation used in other languages but not in Turkish. For example, English has interdental consonants formed by placing the tip of the tongue between the teeth. In words such as thank and those, contrasted with tank and doze, the initial sounds are formed in such a way. The IPA symbols for these sounds are [θ] and [ð]. [θ] in thank is voiceless whereas [ð] in those is voiced.

The different parts of the vocal tract that are used to produce sounds are called articulators (p: 16, Figure 2.2). Articulators are lined up in the upper and lower part of the vocal tract.

Below are the allophones of Turkish /n/: a. velar nasal [ŋ] occurs before velar consonants as in renk, mangal, yankı, sanki, etc. b. alveolar nasal [n] occurs occurs elsewhere.

Below are the allophones of Turkish /k/: a. voiceless velar stop [k] occurs with the vowels a, ı, o, u as in kal, kıl, kola, kul. b. voiceless palatal stop [c] occurs with the vowels e, i, ö, ü as in kel, kil, köle, kül.

Below are the allophones of Turkish /ɾ/: a. voiced alveolar flap [ɾ] occurs between vowels as in ara, sıra, kere, etc. b. voiced alveolar fricated flap [ɾ̌] occurs word initially as in resim, rahat, rende, etc. c. voiceless alveolar fricated flap [ɾ̥ ̌] occurs wordfinally as in bir, dar, her, etc.