Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Proceedings of ConSOLE XX, 2012 (the Conference of the Student Organisation of Linguistics in Europe), Leipzig, Almanya, 4 - 06 Ocak 2012, ss.1-22
This study aims at investigating the adaptation of the loan words in Turkish and their relation to
vowel harmony. I specifically focus on the loan words with final and initial consonant clusters
within the framework of Government Phonology proposed in Kaye, Lowenstamm & Vergnaud
(1990). Following Charette (1991, 2004), I propose that the loan words with initial (s(ı)por
‘sport’) and final (fik(i)r ‘idea’) clusters are not allowed in Turkish; thus, these words have a
lexically empty position between the consonants of the clusters when adapted to Turkish. This
implies that there is no consonant insertion or deletion for the adaptation of the loan words. The
empty nucleus position is realized if it fails to be p-licensed (phonological licensing). I focus on
why and how the empty position is realized.
My claim is that the word final empty nucleus position cannot properly govern the empty
position of the previous nucleus given that p-licensing fails (Kaye, 1990). Hence, the vowel has
to be realized via U and I harmony in the light of licensing constraints given in Charette &
Göksel (1994). The realization of the empty nucleus position in the adapted words with initial
clusters follows some patterns other than vowel harmony and licensing constraints. The present
study suggests that there is no epenthesis phenomenon in loan words with consonant clusters, but
the issue is related to the realization of the empty nucleus which depends on the p-licensing
phenomenon.