turkish phonology and morphology (türkçe ses ve b‹ç‹mb‹lg‹s‹)

• vowel length – tense vowels are longer
• tongue position – tense vowels have more extreme tongue position
• lip position – tense vowels have more extreme lip position
In English, tense vowels are i, e, √, a, u, o, ç and lax vowels are I, E, Q, ´, U
Thus English vowels are described in terms of tense/lax, height, backness, and
rounding.
Tense/lax height backness rounding
/i/ tense high front unrounded
/I/ lax high front unrounded
/o/ tense mid back rounded
/u/ tense high back rounded
/E/ lax mid front unrounded
/´/ lax mid central unrounded
/ç/ tense low back rounded
/e/ tense mid front unrounded
/U/ lax high back rounded
/√/ tense mid central unrounded
/Q/ lax low front unrounded
/a/ tense low central unrounded
As can be seen in the chart and in the examples, for English vowels the following
generalization can be made: All back vowels are rounded, all rounded vowels are
back. Inversely, all non-back vowels are unrounded, all unrounded vowels are
non-back.
DIPHTHONGS
Diphthong is a vowel in which there is a change in quality during a single
syllable. Thus, it is a vowel which starts as one vowel but ends as a different vowel
within the same syllable as shown in Figure 3.5. There are 3 diphthongs in American
English:
/ai/ my, lie, die, rye
/au/ cow, how, now
/oi/ boy, toy, royal
i
a
Unit 3 - Turkish Vowels
British English also has these diphthongs but others as well. As our focus is not
English vowels, they will not be discussed here.
Turkish does not have diphthongs. Although the Turkish word ‘ay’ and the
English word ‘eye’ are similar in their pronunciation, the Turkish word does not
contain a dipthong while the English word does. The Turkish word is transcribed
as /aj/, a vowel and a consonant, but the English word is transcribed as /ai/ with
a diphthong. Why is there a difference in the transcription if the two words sound
u
o
Figure 3.5
Diphthongs in
American
English
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