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)
These examples illustrate that the vowel of the suffix agrees in backness with
the vowel of the root. In Turkish, the rule is when a word contains more than one
syllable, it is the vowel of the last syllable which determines the backness of the
suffix vowel as shown in (16).
(16) kalem kalem-ler
selam selam-lar
uslüp uslüp-ler
otel otel-ler
beton beton-lar
galip galip-ler
Vowel harmony is progressive as the vowel of the suffix is determined by the
(last) vowel of the root. If a suffix is attached to a root, then it is the last vowel,
whether of the root or the suffix, which determines the vowel of the suffix as
illustrated in (17). This holds true for all the successive suffixes.
(17) otel-de-ler otel-ler-den
beton-dan-lar beton-lar-dan
There are two types of vowel harmony in Turkish; backness harmony and
rounding harmony. If the vowel of the suffix is not a high vowel (i.e., E), then it
agrees in backness. This is called backness harmony. This means that the suffix
will have a front vowel with words containing front vowels in the last syllable and
back vowel with words containing back vowels in the last syllable. If the vowel
of the suffix is a high vowel, then it agrees in both backness and rounding. This
is called rounding harmony. The suffix –i, for example, is a high vowel therefore
it will have the forms –i,-µ,–u, -y as seen in (18).
(18) kil [kIl] kil-i [kIlI] k›l [kµ¬] k›l-› [kµ¬µ]
kel [kEl] keli [kEl-I] kat [k√t] kat-› [k√tµ]
kül [kyl] kül-ü [kyly] kul [kU¬] kul-u [kU¬U]
köy [køæ] köy-ü [køæy] kol [ko¬] kol-u [ko¬U]
/i, E/ are unrounded front vowels, thus -i surfaces as [i] which is also an
unrounded front vowel. /y, oe/ are rounded front vowels, hence –i surfaces as [y],
a rounded front vowel. –i surfaces as [µ], an unrounded non-front vowel, with
unrounded non-front vowels /µ, √/, and as /u/, rounded non-front vowel with
rounded non-front vowels /u/ and /o/. This suggest that when a suffix contains a
high vowel, then it shares two common properties with the vowel of the word to
which it is attached.
The suffixes in Turkish can then be classified into two categories in terms of
the vowel they contain. One type of suffixes contains a non-high vowel and
agrees in backness only. The second type of suffixes contains a high vowel and
agrees both in backness and rounding.
The discussion of vowel harmony is limited to harmony between the vowels of
the suffixes and roots. There is also harmony among the vowels within the root,
and although similar rules apply within the roots, the details of such cases are not
dealt with here due to space limits.