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• 1 2021-09-01T20:26:15+00:00 Chapter 5: The Sounds of Turkish, by Grace Garner 102 plain 2021-12-15T21:57:59+00:00

  1. Introduction

  IOS 639-3 Identifier-   tur
  A Brief History of the Turkish language
  The Turkish language is part of the Turkic language group. Other languages in this group are Kazakh and Uzbek. The Turkic language is part of the Altaic family, which contains he Mongolian and Manchu-Tungus languages. The Turkish language that is spoken today is descended from Old Anatolian Turkish.  Old Anatolian Turkish was spoke by the Seljeq Turks during the 11th century and later became the official language of the Ottoman Turks. From the 15th to the 20th century Turkish language was influenced by Persian and Arabic because the Ottomans ruled the Islamic world during this time. In the 1900s the Ottoman Empire fell and the Republic of Turkey was created in 1923 (Babble.com and Lyons)

  Geographic Location 

  Turkish is the official language of Turkey and also the country Cyprus. The northern part of Cyrus is actually calls itself the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and believes itself to be an independent state from the rest of Cyprus. 
  Below you can see where exactly Turkey is on a world map. It is located between Europe and the Middle East. The next photo is a close up showing how close Cyprus is to Turkey (Babble.com and Lyons)
  

  Numbers of Speakers 

  Turkish is the official language of Turkey, and 90 percent of the population speaks it. It is the world's 15th most commonly spoken language. Turkish is spoken by around 77 million people globally (Thomas et al.)

  2. The Consonants 

  In language the consonants are described using 3 criteria.
  1) Voiced vs voiceless: which describes if the vocal cords are vibrating while the sound is being made.  
  2) Place of articulation: where in the vocal tract the are flow is restricted during the sound.
  3) Manner of articulation: the method for the air flow restriction (Turkish Consonants – Turkish Cafe)
  
  The Turkish language consists of 24 consonant sounds. Below are some photos showing first all of the IPA symbols. The next photo show an IPA chart consisting of only the Turkish IPA sounds.
  
  (Thomas et al.)  
  
  When close to the front vowels /e, i, ø, y/ in native Turkic phrases, the velar consonants /k,g/ are palatalized to [c, ɟ] (similar to Russian). The consonant /l/ is pronounced as a clear or light [l] next to to front vowels (including word finally) and as a velarized [[ɫ] next to center and back vowels /a, ,ɯo, u/. The same letters k, g, and l are used for both pronunciations, despite the fact that these alternations are not specified orthographically. These various realizations of /k, g, l/, on the other hand, are contrastive in foreign borrowings and proper nouns. The vowels [a] and [u] are occasionally seen with the consonants [c, ɟ] and clear [l].
  The addition of a circumflex accent above the vowel might indicate this pronunciation: gâvur ('infidel'), mahkûm ('condemned'), lâzım ('required'), however this diacritic is becoming more outdated. Kar ('snow') vs. kâr (with palatalized [c]) ('profit') is an example of a minimum pair (“Turkish Phonology.” )
  
  Below are some examples of Turkish consonants taken from sound files on the UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive.
  
  /j/ is a voiced palatal approximant within the Turkish language. Below is an example of this sound being used in the Turkish word jandarma. Its IPA spelling is jandáʐma. The English translation of this word is 'policeman'.
  
  
  
  /tʃ/ is a voiceless alveolar affricative within the Turkish language. Below is an example of this sound used in the Turkish word çık. Its IPA spelling is tʃɯ́kʰ. The English translation for this word is 'go out'.
  
  
  
  /ɹ/ is a voiced alveolar approximant within the Turkish language. Below is an example of this sound used in the Turkish word ray. Its IPA spelling is ˈɹaj. The English translation for this word is 'rail'.
  /pʰ/ is a voiceless bilabial plosive within the Turkish language. Below is an example of this sound used in the Turkish word para. Its IPA spelling is pʰaˈɾa. The English translation for this word is 'money'.
  

  
  3. The Vowels

  The vowels of the Turkish language are a, e, I o, ö, u, and ü, in alphabetical order. In Turkish, there are no phonemic diphthongs, and when two vowels are contiguous in a word's spelling, which rarely happens in a few loanwords, each vowel preserves its own sound (e.g. aile [a.i.le], laik [la.ic]). In certain words, a donor language diphthong (for example, [aw] in Arabic [naw.ba(t)]) is substituted by a monophthong (for example, [œ] in nöbet [nœ.bet]). In other words, the diphthong is split into two syllables with a semivocalic /j/ in the middle. 
  
  (“Turkish Phonology.” )
  
  Turkish vowels are typically depicted as a cube, with all conceivable properties, front/back, high/low, and rounded/unrounded, arranged in a cube form. Because of the deletion of ğ, each vowel can be long, and the vowels /e I an u/ can be long in Arabic loanwords (Thomas et al.)
  Above are charts showing both all IPA vowel phonemes and the Turkish vowel phonemes.
  • /ɯ/ has been variously described as close back near-close near-back and close central.
  • /e, o, œ/ are phonetically mid.
  • /e/ corresponds to /e/ and /æ/ in other Turkic languages.
  • /a/ has been variously described as central and back because of the vowel harmony. The vowel /e/ plays the role as the "front" analog of /a/.
  • /i, y, u, e, ø/ (but not /o, a/) are lowered to [ɪ, ʏ, ʊ, ɛ, œ] in environments variously described as "final open syllable of a phrase"and "word-final".
  (“Turkish Phonology.” )
  Below are some examples of Turkish vowels taken from sound files on the UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive.
  
  /ɯ/ is a vowel sound within the Turkish language. Below is an example of this sound in the Turkish word kız. The IPA spelling for this word is kʰɯz. The English translation from Turkish to english is 'girl'.
   
  
  /œ/ is a vowel sound within the Turkish language. Below is an example of this sound in the Turkish word ğöl. The IPA spelling for this word is ɟœlʲ. The English Translation for this word is 'lake'. 

  
  
  /i/ is a vowel sound within the Turkish language. Below is an example of this sound used in the Turkish word bilet. The IPA spelling for this word is bilét̪ʰ. The English translation for this word is 'ticket'. 

  
  

  
  
  4. Allophonic Alternations

  There is a controversial phoneme known as yumuşak g ('soft g') and written ⟨ğ⟩, which only appears after a vowel. It's sometimes written as /ɰ/ or /ɣ/. It may be silent or sound like a bilabial glide between back vowels. It is either silent or realized as [j] between front vowels, depending on the preceding and subsequent vowels. It is usually manifested as vowel length, prolonging the previous vowel, or as a little [j] if followed by a front vowel when not between vowels (that is, word ultimately and before a consonant). (“Turkish Phonology.” )
  In the Turkish phoneme inventory, it is either represented as a velar fricative or it is not represented at all. Aside from varied phonemic transcriptions, the phonetic realization of /g/ has also been subject to significant change. The table below summarizes the many pronunciation variants and their descriptions, while maintaining as true to the original sources as possible. It's worth noting that different writers use various words to describe the same variety. If the /g/ is not phonetically realized, it is referred to as "inaudible," "unpronounced," "phonetically zero," or "lost." (Ünal-Logacev, Żygis, & Fuchs, 2019).
  In the 'Phonetics and phonology of soft ‘g’ in Turkish', the authors give these constraints of when the Turkish soft 'g' is used within the langauage:

  1. /ğ/ never occurs in word-initial position.

  2. /ğ/ is always preceded by vowels (graphemes that correspond to /i, ɯ, ʌ, u, ɛ, o, y, œ/) and is followed either by vowels or by sonorants, i.e. the lateral approximant /l/, the tap /ɾ/, and the nasals /m n/. When /ğ/ is followed by a sonorant consonant, they are separated by a syllable boundary (/Vğ.CV/).

  3. /ğ/ never occurs adjacent to obstruents, with the exception of a few loan words (e.g. <ağda> ‘wax’) and suffixes (e.g. <bağ-cı> ‘vinedresser’).

  4. /ğ/ is found most frequently in the context of high unrounded vowels, either front /i_i/ or back /ɯ_ɯ/.

  5. The occurrences of /ğ/ after rounded vowels(/o, œ, u, y/) are considerably less frequent, but still present. The reason for this distribution might be another sound change that soft ‘g’ has undergone. In some verbs, /ğ/ preceded by round vowels and followed by back vowels or consonants changed to weak [v] or [w]. For instance, since the orthography reform in 1928 the verbs historically written as <döğmek> ‘to beat’, <öğmek> ‘to praise’

  Below is the Turkish soft 'g' spoken within a simple Turkish sentence. It is said within the second word. The Turkish sentence is written as Oda soğumaya başladi.  The IPA transcription of the word with the soft 'g'- soğumaya- is written as so̞jʉma̠jə. Here the soft 'g' is trascribed as /j/.
  The next sound file is just the word soğumaya spoken to show the soft 'g' sound.
  
  Below is a Pratt image to illustrate the soft 'g' sounds characteristics. 
  
  
  

  
  
  5. Syllables and Syllable Structure

  Turkish phonotactics is almost entirely consistent.  The maximal syllable structure in Turkish is (C)V(C)(C). Despite the fact that Turkish nouns can have various final consonants, the options are restricted. Multi-syllable words are syllabified by C.CV or V.CV syllable splits; the C.V split is prohibited, and the V.V split is only encountered in rare instances. 
  Only a few modern English, French, and Italian loanwords, such as Fransa, plan, program, propaganda, strateji, stres, steril, and tren, allow complicated onsets, making them CCVC(C)(C). The complicated onsets are only pronounced as such in extremely careful pronunciation, even in these words. Otherwise, following the initial consonant, speakers frequently epenthesize a vowel. Although certain loanwords have a written vowel in front of them to indicate the breaking of complicated onsets (for example, the French station was adopted as istasyon in Turkish), epenthetic vowels are not commonly expressed in spelling in loan words. This is in contrast to early twentieth-century orthographic standards, which did reflect this epenthesis. (“Turkish Phonology.”) 
  On thereaderwiki.com when discussing Turkish phonotactics it gives these constrictions regarding the syllable structure within the language:
  • All syllables have a nucleus
  • No diphthongs in the standard dialect (/j/ is always treated as a consonant)
  • No word-initial /ɰ/ or /ɾ/ (in native words)
  • No long vowel followed by syllable-final voiced consonant (this essentially forbids trimoraic syllables)
  • No complex onsets (except for the exceptions above)
  • No /b,d͡ʒ,d,ɟ,g/ in coda, except for some recent loanwords such as psikolog and five contrasting single-syllable words: ad "name" vs. at "horse", hac "Hajj" vs. haç "holy cross", İd (city name) vs. it "dog", kod "code" vs. kot "jeans", od "fire" vs. ot "grass".
  • In a complex coda:
    • The first consonant is either a voiceless fricative, /ɾ/ or /l/
    • The second consonant is either a voiceless plosive, /f/, /s/, or /h/
  • Two adjacent plosives and fricatives must share voicing, even when not in the same syllable, but /h/ and /f/ are exempt
  • No word-initial geminates - in all other syllables, geminates are allowed only in the onset (hyphenation and syllabification in Turkish match except for this point; hyphenation splits the geminates)

  6. Focus on vowel harmony in Turkish

  The development of theoretical phonological models has been aided by vowel harmony processes. The study of Turkish vowel harmony is no different. The formal description provided, on the other hand, is based on a distinct understanding of the nature of phonological characteristics.
  Vowel harmony, in its broadest sense, is the condition that all vowels within a domain, generally the non-compounded word, agree on some attribute or qualities. The vowel characteristics 'round' and 'front' are used in the Turkish harmony scheme (Van der Hulst, H., & Van De Weijer, J., 1991).
  In the initial syllable of a word, any of the eight Turkish short vowels can appear. In frontness, any subsequent vowel assimilates to the previous vowel. As a result, in front or backness, all vowels in a regular stem agree. Palatal concord is the term for this. For example:

  palatal harmony:
  hüviyet `identity'              küsülü `annoyed'
  netice `result'                  k+m+lt+ `movement'
  oyuncak  `plaything'        sogukça  `ice cold'
  
  Furthermore, regardless of whether the previous vowel is round or non-round, a subsequent high vowel assimilates to it in roundness. The form oyuncak 'plaything' demonstrates this: the high /u/ is rounded exactly like the beginning /o/, and the /a/ does not need to be rounded because it is low.
  The vowels /o/ and /ö/ may not appear in any syllable save the first because the roundness of starting vowels does not extend to low vowels in the second. This last limitation will be referred to as the "non-initial /o-ö/ prohibition."

  (Van der Hulst, H., & Van De Weijer, J., 1991)

  
   The Turkish vowel system is three-dimensional, with vowels distinguished by three characteristics: front/back, rounded/unrounded, and high/low. This results in eight potential combinations, each corresponding to one Turkish vowel. Vowel harmony in grammatical suffixes is achieved by "a chameleon-like property," which means that suffix vowels alter to harmonize with the preceding syllable's vowel. There are two patterns based on the changing vowel:
  • twofold (/e/~/a/): Backness is conserved in both cases, /e/ occurs after a front vowel and /a/ appears after a back vowel. The locative suffix is -de after front vowels and -da after rear vowels, for example. The notation -de² is shorthand for this pattern.
  • fourfold (/i//~y/~/u/): Backness and rounding are both maintained. After unrounded front vowels, the genitive suffix is -in, -ün after rounded front vowels, -n after unrounded back vowels, and -un after rounded back vowels, for example. The notation -in⁴ can be this pattern's shorthand.
  In grammatical suffixes, the vowel / does not appear. The vowel harmony is broken in the solitary instance of /o/ in the verbal progressive suffix --i⁴yor, as in yürüyor ('[he/she/it] is walking'). Because it was developed from the compounding "-i yor," -iyor remained. 
  
  Here are some examples of how to employ the copula -dir⁴('[he/she/it] is') in Turkish to demonstrate vowel harmony:
  • Türkiye'dir ('it is Turkey')
  • gündür ('it is the day')
  • kapıdır ('it is the door')
  • paltodur ('it is the coat').
  Vowel harmony does not occur in compound words unless it is deliberately generated that way. Vowel harmony does not frequently apply to loanword roots, and in certain invariant suffixes, vowel harmony only applies to the first vowel.
  A few native Turkish words, such as anne ('mother,') do not have vowel harmony. In words like annedir ('she is a mother,' suffixes harmonize with the last vowel. Suffixes added to foreign borrowings and proper nouns, for example, frequently harmonize the vowel with the syllable immediately preceding the suffix: Amsterdam'da ('in Amsterdam'), Paris'te ('in Paris'). 
  (“Turkish Phonology.” )

  7. References Cited/Bibliography

  Babble.com, and Dylan Lyons. “How Many People Speak Turkish And Where Is It Spoken?” Babbel Magazine, https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/how-many-people-speak-turkish. Accessed 7 Dec. 2021.
  
  Korkmaz, Yunus, Aytuğ Boyacı, and Türker Tuncer. "Turkish vowel classification based on acoustical and decompositional features optimized by Genetic Algorithm." Applied Acoustics 154 (2019): 28-35.
  
  The International Phonetic Alphabet - Audio Illustrations. http://web.uvic.ca/ling/resources/ipa/charts/IPAlab/IPAlab.htm. Accessed 9 Nov. 2021.
  
  Thomas, Ellen, et al. “Turkish Manual: Language and Culture.” Weebly.Com, Texas State University, http://languagemanuals.weebly.com/uploads/4/8/5/3/4853169/turkish_language_manual.pdf. Accessed 15 Nov. 202
  
  Turkish Consonants – Turkish Cafe. https://turkish.cafe/turkish-consonants/. Accessed 1 Dec. 2021.
  
  “Turkish Phonology.” The Reader Wiki, Reader View of Wikipedia, https://thereaderwiki.com/en/Turkish_phonology. Accessed 7 Nov. 2021.
   

  Ünal-Logacev, Ö., Żygis, M., & Fuchs, S. (2019). Phonetics and phonology of soft ‘g’in Turkish. Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 49(2), 183-206.

  Van der Hulst, H., & Van De Weijer, J. (1991). Topics in Turkish phonology. Turkish linguistics today, 11-59.
  
  Word List for Turkish. http://archive.phonetics.ucla.edu/Language/TUR/tur_word-list_1972_01.html#88. Accessed  23 Nov. 2021.