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

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Turkish Phonology and Morphology (Türkçe Ses ve Biçim Bilgisi)
combination word-finally in Turkish as in the words such as ‘renk’, ‘denk’, ‘künk’.
(IV) and (V) cannot be Turkish words because both have non-permissible
combinations. The word in (IV) has two consonants together without an
intervening vowel (called consonant cluster) in word-initial position which
Turkish does not allow. Turkish has borrowed words such as ‘spor’ which appears
to have a consonant cluster in word-initial position but it is not realized as such in
actual utterances. ‘Spor’ is pronounced as two syllables with a vowel in between
the two consonants, ‘s›-por’, thus not breaking the rules of Turkish. (V) also has
a consonant cluster in syllable-initial position. Based on our intuitions about
Turkish syllable structure, ‘arktrat’ can be broken down either as ‘ar-ktrat’ or as
‘ark-trat’. In the first case, there are three consonants together in syllable initial
position. In the second case, there are consonant clusters both in syllable-final
and syllable-initial positions. Syllable-final ‘-rk’ sequence is permissible as it occurs
in words such as ‘Türk’, ‘fark’, ‘kork’. Syllable initial consonant clusters however
are not allowed in Turkish no matter what the consonant combination may be.
Any native speaker of Turkish would also agree that (I), (II), and (III) could be
Turkish words but (IV) and (V) could not be acceptable Turkish words although
they may not be able to state the reasons. That is because native speakers of a
language acquire the rules of that language – they know what is permissible and
what is not. Thus, Turkish speakers know that Turkish does not allow syllableinitial
consonant clusters and although syllable-final clusters are permissible, the
combination of consonants that can occur is limited. This may not be an overt
knowledge, a native speaker may not be able to verbalize the rule. Rather Turkish
speakers know intuitively which sequences are possible in Turkish. Knowing a
language then means knowing the set of rules of that language.
Phonological rules of a language are language specific in that each language
may choose to utilize different phonological rules or same rules but with some
differences. Turkish utilizes phonological rules that other languages also utilize.
In this unit, some of the phonological rules of Turkish are described and discussed.
FINAL DEVOICING
Turkish speakers know that the following non-sense words are not acceptable
Turkish words.
(2) (I) sahab
(II) alad
(III) sorag
(IV) akac
If told that the above words have meanings, native speakers would argue that
these could not be Turkish but that they may be words borrowed from other
languages. If asked why these cannot be Turkish words, not everyone could be
able to state the reason(s), or name the rule but would know that these are not
acceptable in Turkish.
The reason why these words cannot be acceptable in Turkish is that Turkish
does not allow voiced stops (b,d,g) and affricate (dZ) to occur in word-final
position. This is a rule called Final Devoicing Rule which states that voiced
sounds become voiceless in word or syllable final position. The words above end
either with a voiced stop or affricate, therefore not acceptable Turkish words.