Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

1
PHONOLOGICAL UNITS
Words are made up of sequences of distinct phonological units called consonants and
vowels. Some consonants and vowels sound the same wherever they occur within a word,
and have a single pronunciation. Others have more than one way of being pronounced,
depending on the surrounding sounds. The various pronunciations of a phonological unit
conditioned by its position are called its allophones.
Phonological units are indicated by double slashes (/ /), and their allophones by square
brackets ([ ]). The corresponding Turkish alphabetical symbols are indicated by inverted
commas (‘ ’). Long vowels and doubled consonants are indicated by a following colon
(:).
1.1 CONSONANTS AND VOWELS
1.1.1 CONSONANTS
The consonants in Turkish differ from each other in terms of whether they are voiced or
voiceless, their point of articulation and their manner of articulation. The
voiced/voiceless contrast is the most prevalent one in processes involving phonology and
word structure (2.1, 6.1.2).
Voiceless consonants Voiced consonants
/p/ /b/
/t/ /d/
/k/ /g/
/c/(‘k’)
(‘g’)
(‘ç’) (‘c’)
/f/ /v/
/s/ /z/
/∫/(‘ş’)
/h/
(‘j’)
/γ/(‘ğ’)