Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 44
6.1.2 CONSONANT ALTERNATION IN SUFFIXES: ‘ç’/‘c’, ‘t’/‘d’
AND ‘k’/‘g’
Some suffixes in Turkish begin with the voiceless/voiced pairs ‘ç’/‘c’ (e.g. the
occupational suffix -CI (7.2.2.2), ‘t’/‘d’ (e.g. the locative suffix -DA (8.1.3) or ‘k’/‘g’
(e.g. the adjective-forming suffix -GAn (7.2.1.1)). The choice between using the voiced
or voiceless variant depends on the last phonological unit in the stem. When a suffix
beginning with one of these pairs is attached to a stem ending in any one of the voiceless
consonants, the voiceless variant in the pair is used as the initial consonant of the suffix.
Otherwise (i.e. when the stem ends in a vowel or a voiced consonant) its voiced
counterpart is used. To summarize:
‘p’, ‘t’, ‘k’, ‘f,’ ‘h’, ‘ç’, ‘ş’, ‘s’ are followed by ‘ç’, ‘t’, ‘k’
‘b’, ‘d’, ‘c’, ‘v’, ‘l’, ‘m’, ‘n’, ‘j’, ‘r’, ‘z’, ‘y’, ‘ğ’ and vowels are followed by ‘c’, ‘d’, ‘g’
These alternations are shown by the use of capital letters. Thus ‘C’ represents ‘ç’/‘c’, ‘D’
represents ‘t’/‘d’, and ‘G’ represents ‘k’/‘g’:
C: posta-cı ‘postman’ süt-çü ‘milkman’
D: oda-da ‘in the room’ sokak-ta ‘in the street’
G: diz-gi ‘print’ as-kı ‘hanger’
6.1.3 THE ATTACHMENT OF A SUFFIX TO A ROOT OR STEM:
DELETABLE VOWELS AND CONSONANTS
In Turkish, vowels do not occur next to each other. Therefore if a suffix beginning with a
vowel is attached to a stem ending in a vowel, either the initial vowel of the suffix is
deleted, or the consonant ‘y’ is added. As a result, suffixes are divided into two groups:
those which can lose their initial vowel and those which can acquire the buffer consonant
‘y’. All such vowels and consonants are shown in brackets in the citation forms of
suffixes.
Examples of the first type are the 1st person possessive suffix -(I)m, the aorist suffix -
(A/I)r and the adjectival suffix -(I)mtrak. Most derivational suffixes (Chapter 7) are of
this type.
pul-um ‘my stamp’ but kafa-m ‘my head’
gör-ür ‘s/he sees’ but ara-r ‘s/he searches’
yeşil-imtrak ‘greenish’ but sarı-mtrak ‘yellowish’
Some examples of suffixes which take the consonant ‘y’ are the converbial suffix -
(y)IncA, the dative suffix -(y)A and the future marker -(y)AcAk. Most inflectional
suffixes (Chapter 8) are of this type.
gel-ince ‘upon coming’ but dene-yince ‘upon testing’