Apophony in Turkish


BATURAY MERAL S.

TURKISH STUDIES - EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES, vol.5, no.5, pp.201-220, 2010 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)

Abstract

The present work investigates the sound alternations in Turkish onomatopoeic reduplications and offers an analysis based on apophony, which is the label for context-free sound alternations. It questions whether Turkish onomatopoeic reduplication displays any regularity with respect to the vocalic changes observed in the forms. The study claims that context-free sound alternations in onomatopoeic reduplications are some form of apophony and follows the Apophonic path offered by Guerssel and Lowenstamm (1996). Turkish implements A→U alternation for both [a]-[u] and [e]-[ü] changes observed in onomatopoeic reduplications.