PHONOLOGİCAL PROCESSES İN TURKISH

The direction of assimilation in Turkish is regressive, thus, from right to left. This means that the features of the following sound assimilates to the features of the preceding sound.

Phonology is concerned with the intuitive knowledge of native speakers about permissible sound sequences in their languge. For example, Turkish speakers intuitively know that Turkish does not allow syllable initial consonant clusters, and although syllable-final clusters are permissible, the combination of consonants that can occur is limited. Knowing a language then means knowing the set of rules of that language.

The way Turkish uses final devoicing rule is different from those languages in two respects: • In Turkish only voiced stops and affricate undergo this rule whereas in the other languages mentioned, fricatives as well as stops and affricates devoice in word final position. • The rule is reflected in the orthography in Turkish but not in other languages: • orthography à kitap tat phonetic • representation à [kɪtʌp] [tʌt] • orthography à kitabı tadı phonetic • representation à [kɪtʌbɯ] [tədɯ]

To understand how final devoicing works, it is essential to understand the difference between the notions underlying representation (UR) and surface realization (SR). Underlying representations have to be posited because otherwise: • the rule cannot account for all the surface realizations. • different rules have to be stipulated which may result in exceptions as the rule given in Turkish grammar books. Thus, it is necessary to posit an underlying representation for each word and to assume that the underlying representations of alternating and non-alternating roots are different to derive the correct forms.

This is a phonological rule which states that voiced sounds become voiceless in word or syllable final position. Therefore, Turkish does not allow voiced stops /b/, /d/, /g/ and affricate /dʒ/ to occur in word-final position.

Two types of assimilation processes are seen in Turkish: a. place of articulation assimilation b. voicing assimilation

Place of articulation assimilation means that the place of articulation of one sound becomes like the neighboring sound. For example, in the word İstanbul, the alveolar nasal /n/ is produced as a bilabial nasal /m/ in casual speech. Note that place of articulation assimilation is most evident in nasals, more specifically in the alveolar nasal in Turkish.

In words such as sandık, tandır, ‘mendil’, /n/ is followed by an alveolar stop. As both /n/ and /d/ are alveolar sounds, there is no change in the realization of /n/, it remains as an alveolar nasal. However, when /n/ is followed by a velar stop /k/ or /g/, /n/ is realized as /ŋ/. Because /ŋ/ is not a distinct phoneme in Turkish, realization of /n/ as a velar nasal is not reflected in the orthography. Some examples are: nankör, çengi, sanki, yenge, denge.

Voicing assimilation in Turkish is progressive (from left to right; going forward). It is the root-final sound that determines the voicing of the alternating suffixinitial consonant.

Underlying representation means that a word may have a different form than its actual realization (i.e., how the word is said). Surface realization, on the other hand, refers to how it is actually said. The following examples illustrate the underlying representation (UR) and surface realization (SR) of the given words. UR SR • kap /kʌb/ [kʌp] • sap /sʌp/ [sʌp] • kanat /kʌnʌd/ [kʌnʌt] • sanat /sʌnʌt/ [sʌnʌt]

Assimilation is a phonological process whereby one sound becomes like the neighboring sound.

We know this because each language has its own set of rules of which sounds can occur together and which sounds cannot, which sounds can occur in which environment or position within a word.

Voicing assimilation is a process whereby the voicing of a consonant becomes similar to that of the neighboring consonant. That is, voicing of the suffix agrees with the voicing of the root final sound.

Phonologists argue that this definition is good enough to explain the /p/-/b/ variation in cases such as kitap vs kitab-ı where /p/ becomes /b/ because the accusative suffix –i is attached. However, it does not account for other words in which voiceless stops do not become voiced when vowel initial suffix is attached as in. • sap à sap-ı not *sab-ı • sanat à sanat-ı not *sanad-ı • Türk à Türk-ü not *Türg-ü • saç à saç-ı not *sac-ı

Some of the phonological processes used in Turkish are: • Final Devoicing • Assimilation • Vowel Harmony

Turkish is not the only language which utilizes final devoicing rule. Some other languages are German, Russian, Polish, and Catalan.

Voicing assimilation is relevant for consonants only because consonants are distinguished in terms of voicing whereas voicing is not a distinguishing property of vowels.

In Turkish grammar books, final devoicing rule is stipulated as voiceless stops and affricate becoming voiced when a suffix beginning with a vowel is attached.

This change in pronunciation results from coarticulation. In speech, we anticipate a sound while producing the preceding sound. In this case, while producing /n/ we begin to form /b/ for which lips come together, resulting in /m/. There are other such examples where /n/ becomes /m/ when preceding a bilabial stop: • penbe à pembe • anbar à amba • saklanbaç à saklambaç • cünbüş à cümbüş As seen in these examples, this process is reflected in the orthography. ‘İstanbul’ is an exception as it is written with the letter ‘n’ but this could be because ‘İstanbul’ is a proper noun.

The process of voicing assimilation is most apparent in stop-initial and affricate-initial suffixes.

Not all stop- and affricate-initial suffixes assimilate in voicing. –ken, –sa are two of these exceptions: • af à af-ken • av à av-ken Whether or not a suffix-initial consonant assimilates in voicing is not rule governed, rather it is an idiosyncratic characteristic of a given suffix.

Vowel Harmony can be considered a type of assimilation since neighboring vowels become alike to share common properties. Consider the following examples: • iş iş-ler kız kız-lar • ev ev-ler bal bal-lar • süt süt-ler muz muz-lar • köy köy-ler tok tok-lar In the first group of words, the plural suffix is –ler while the same suffix becomes –lar in the second group of words. The root-vowels in the first group are /i, ɛ, y, œ /. These vowels are all front vowels. Thus, the suffix –ler, which also contains a front vowel, is attached. Conversely, the vowels in the second group, /ɯ, a, o, u/, are all non-front vowels. Thus the plural suffix has the form –lar, with a nonfront vowel. These examples illustrate that the vowel of the suffix agrees in backness with the last vowel of the root.

The suffixes in Turkish can be classified into two categories in terms of the vowel they contain: a. suffixes containing a non-high vowel and agreeing in backness only. b. suffixes containing a high vowel and agreeing both in backness and rounding.

One such example is the initial consonant of the locative case suffix, which is a stop sound. Below are listed some illustarive examples of how this sound behaves in Turkish: -de -te • ev ev-de kep kep-te • ben ben-de hedef hedef-te • sel sel-de çiçek çiçek-te • yer yer-de ses ses-te • belde belde-de beş beş-te When the suffix –de is attached to a root, two different forms with respect to the initial consonant, –de and –te appear. The suffix surfaces as –de in the first column but as –te in the second column. The reason is that /ʋ, n, l, ɾ, ɛ/ are all voiced. The initial consonant of the suffix –de therefore is also voiced. The words in the second column, on the other hand, end with a voiceless consonant. /p, f, k, s, ʃ/ are all voiceless. Thus, the initial consonant of the suffix becomes voiceless,-te. Another example is the affricate-initial suffix –CI with the meaning ‘maker’. Some examples showing surface variations of this suffix are: voiced voiceless • firin à firin-cı çorap à çorap-çı • cam à cam-cı sanat à sanat-çı • halı à halı-cı kazak à kazak-çı

Vowel harmony is progressive as the vowel of the suffix is determined by the last vowel of the root. If a suffix is attached to a root, then it is the last vowel, whether of the root or the suffix, which determines the vowel of the suffix. This holds true for all the successive suffixes. Examples are: otel-de-ler otel-ler-den, betondan-lar beton-lar-dan.

There are two types of vowel harmony in Turkish; backness harmony and rounding harmony.

See the –lar/-ler example in Question 25 above.

The suffix –i, for example, is a high vowel therefore it undergoes rounding harmony to have the forms –i,-ɯ,–u, -y as shown below: • kil [cɪl] à kil-i [cɪlɪ] kıl [kɯɬ] à kıl-ı [kɯɬɯ] • kel [cɛl] à kel-i [cɛlɪ] kat [kʌt] à kat-ı [kʌtɯ] • kül [cyl]à kül-ü[cyly] kul [kʊɬ] à kul-u [kʊɬʊ] • köy[cœj] à köy-ü [cœjy] kol [koɬ] à kol-u [koɬʊ] As seen above, the suffix is realized as: a. [i], which is an unrounded front vowel, when it is used with /i, ɛ/ which are also unrounded front vowels. b. [y], a rounded front vowel, when it is used with /y, oe/ which are also rounded front vowels. c. [ɯ], an unrounded non-front vowel, with unrounded non-front vowels /ɯ, ʌ/. d. /u/, rounded non-front vowel, with rounded nonfront vowels /u/ and /o/.

If the vowel of the suffix is a high vowel, then it agrees in both backness and rounding. This is called rounding harmony.

If the vowel of the suffix is not a high vowel, then it agrees in backness with the preceding vowel. This is called backness harmony. This means that the suffix will have a front vowel with words containing front vowels in the last syllable and back vowel with words containing back vowels in the last syllable.