PHONETIC CHANGES CAUSED BY VOWEL HARMONY

Abstract

There are various reasons for vowel and consonant changes in languages. Some of these changes are related to ‘the external history’ of a language such as contacted languages, climate and geography. The other reasons are related to ‘internal history’ of languages that caused by internal dynamics. In Turkish, there is an important harmonical systems called ‘palatal and labial harmony’ in vowels; ‘voiced-voiceless harmony’ in consonants. In modern Turkish dialects, the situation of this harmonical system presents different features. Among the other dialects, Kirghiz Turkish is the dialect that excels and runs perfectly the vowel and consonant harmony. The more this system expands language, naturally, changes the inconsistent forms that are encountered in words bases or stems as suffixes. In all the written and spoken languages, the most common and characteristic examples related vowel and consonant are seen in Kirghiz Turkish. Hence, in this study the sound changes caused by sound harmony in Kirghiz Turkish will be examined. Palatal harmony is about articulation spot (front-back) of vowels. Palatal harmony that is also called as backness-frontness harmony in Turkey Turkish is termed as “tildin küüsü; kalın ündüü küüsü, ince ündüü küüsü” in Kirghiz Turkish. Palatal Harmony is examined under the following titles: Palatal Harmony in Turkish Origin Words; Backness Harmony (kalın ündüü küüsü), Frontness Harmony (İnce Ündüü Küüsü); Palatal Harmony in Foreign Origin Words. Under the titles of Velarisation of Front Vovels and Palatalisation of Back Vowels, the vowels changes are illustrated and presented. Labial harmony has different levels in modern Turkish written languages. In this study, the description of this harmony is accepted as in the Kirghiz Turksih not in Turkey Turkish and the examples are handled according to this description. The examples of The Sound Changes Caused by Labial Harmony are illustrated individually as for the vowels and consonants. In Kirghiz Turkish, the consonant harmony (voiced-voiceless harmony) that is operated in different levels in modern Turkish written languages is taken to further levels. Especially, the suffixes that are put on the root and the stem words tend to get into a phonetic change. Because of the consonant harmony, the suffixes which starts with a the voiced consonants that have no voiceless counterparts (for example lAr > lar, ler, lor, lör, dar, der, dor, dör, tar, ter, tor, tör) change when they come after a word that ends with eighter a voiced or voiceless consonants in order to ensure the harmony. In this study, the sound changes that is caused by vowel and consonant harmony are examined by illustrated in a systematic method.

Keywords

• harmony
• sound change
• palatal harmony
• labial harmony