LING 313 Fall 2022

Phonology and morphology of Turkish Lecture #6.2

LING 313 - Phonology and Morphology of Turkish

Week 7
Metin Bağrıaçık
metin.bagriacik@boun.edu.tr

Topic: Phonological processes: vowel and consonant harmony

Reading: ET 66-76
Objectives: The students are expected to attain knowledge in the following topics:
• phonological processes of vowel and consonant harmony.

1 Vowel harmony

vowel harmony is the passing on of a (set of) feature(s) of a vowel to a subsequent vowel
in the same word.

• In Turkish it operates (arguably) within roots (internal harmony) and across affix
boundaries (external harmony).

External harmony
(1) Dative

a. ete c. süte e. ata g. ota

b. ite d. çöpe f. tıra h. duta

(2) Accusative

a. eti c. sütü e. atı g. otu

b. iti d. çöpü f. tırı h. dutu

• Which vowels in the suffixes above follow which vowels of the roots?
• What features do they have?

front central back

high i y W u

mid e ø o

mid-low

low a

Figure 1: Phonemic short vowel inventory of Turkish

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Phonology and morphology of Turkish Lecture #6.2

Factor I: The feature that is passed on to the next V

(1) fronting harmony: assimilation of a vowel with the vowel in the preceding syllable
in terms of frontness.
(2) rounding harmony: assimilation of a vowel with the vowel in the preceding syllable
in terms of roundedness.

• Vowel height and vowel length are features that are not passed on to the next V !! (e.g.,
*kol-o vs. kol-u; *itir[a:]z[W:] vs. itir[a:]z[W])

• Look at (1) and (2) again: Why does roundedness apply in (2) but not in (1)?

• What is the feature that sets [a, e] apart from [W, i, u, y]?

Factor II: The lexical type of the suffix

(1) I-type suffixes: The vowels of these suffixes are [+ high]. They get both roundedness
and frontness features from the preceding vowel → /I/ : [i], [W], [u], [y].
(2) A-type suffixes: The vowels of these suffixes are [− high] and [−rounded]; they only
get frontness feature from the preceding vowel → /A/: [a], [e].

• To see how vowel harmony proceeds, we consider the two factors in tandem:
(1) We look at the (last) vowel in the root, to see whether it is (i) [± front], (ii) [±rounded].
(2) We look at the shape of the archiphoneme in the suffix (i.e., whether it is /I/ or /A/).

• kız, diz, yol, göl, at, gül + Accusative (an I-type suffix: /I/)
– kız [kh Wz]: [W] is [− front]. It is also [− round]. Therefore /I/ surfaces as [W] [−
front, − round] → kızı.
– diz [diz]: [i] is [+ front] and [− round]. Therefore /I/ surfaces as [i] [+ front, −
round] → dizi.
– yol [joë]: [o] is [−front] and [+ round]. Therefore /I/ surfaces as [u] [− front, +
round] → yolu.
– göl [gøl]: [ø] is [+ front] and [+ round]. Therefore /I/ surfaces as [ø] [+ front, +
ff
round] → gölü.
– at [ath ]: [a] is [− front] and [− round]. Therefore /I/ surfaces as [W] [− front, −
round] → atı.
– gül [gyl]: [y] is [+ front] and [+ round]. Therefore /I/ surfaces as [ø] [+ front, +
ff
round] → gülü.
• kız, diz, yol, göl, at, gül + Dative (an A-type suffix: /A/)
– kız [kh Wz]: [W] is [− front]. It is also [− round]. A-type suffixes are not influenced
by [± round] feature. Therefore /A/ surfaces as [a] [− front] → kıza.
– diz [diz]: [i] is [+ front] and [− round]. A-type suffixes are not influenced by [±
round] feature. Therefore /A/ surfaces as [e] [+ front] → dize.

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Phonology and morphology of Turkish Lecture #6.2

– yol [joë]: [o] is [−front] and [+ round]. A-type suffixes are not influenced by [±
round] feature. Therefore /A/ surfaces as [a] [− front] → yola.
– göl [gøl]: [ø] is [+ front] and [+ round]. A-type suffixes are not influenced by [±
ff
round] feature. Therefore /A/ surfaces as [e] [+ front] → göle.
– at [ath ]: [a] is [− front] and [− round]. A-type suffixes are not influenced by [±
round] feature. Therefore /A/ surfaces as [a] [− front] → ata.
– gül [gyl]: [y] is [+ front] and [+ round]. A-type suffixes are not influenced by [±
ff
round] feature. Therefore /A/ surfaces as [e] [+ front] → güle.

Exceptions to external vowel harmony

Non-harmonic suffixes (those which have a prespecified V): {-Iyor}, {-ken}, {-istan}, {-izm};
clitics ki, ise, ya. . .

Internal harmony
The pattern emerged above can be observed root-internally as well (in harmonic roots).

• The determining V is the first V of the root: the following ones agree in terms of [±
frontness] with the preceding one.

• A [+ high] vowel agrees in rounding with the preceding vowel (but there is also ‘labial
attraction’!)

• Mid rounded vowels [o, ø] do not occur in non-initial syllables.

(3) yulkV
a. yulkV → b. yulkV →
[+high] [-high]

(4) sepVr
a. sepV r → b. sepVr →
[+high] [-high]

(5) ÇömkVl
a. ÇömkV l → b. ÇömkVl →
[+high] [-high]

Exceptions to internal vowel harmony

Many borrowed words. . . , also elma, anne

2 Consonant harmony
Refers to the initial textitoral stops or affricates of suffixes, such as past tense {-DI}, locative {-
DA}, agentive {-CI}, adjectival {-GAn}. . . The choice is between voiceless/voiced counterparts
[t] vs. [d]; [Ù] vs. [Ã]; [k] vs. [g]

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