DAMAKSILLAŞMA VE [ÖNDİL] ÜZERİNE: TÜRKÇE VE KARAYCA UYUMLARINDAKİ ÖRTÜŞME
ON PALATALIZATION AND [FRONT]: THE OVERLAPPING IN TURKISH AND KARAIM HARMONIES

Summary/Abstract: This study compares the segments involved in the harmony processes with those that are excluded from the harmony in Turkey Turkish and Northwest Karaim, and argues that the target feature in the harmony process, a type of phonological agreement, is [front] in both dialects. The study distinguishes [palatal], [palatalized], and [fronted] from each other, and aims to show that what is targeted in the Turkic harmonies is [front], which platalization (and [palatalized]) is also involved in. As is known, Turkish backness harmony requires that all vowels in a word agree in terms of the backness/frontness dimension (e.g. Yavaş, 1980; Kardeştuncer, 1983; Ergenç, 1995; Kabak, 2011). Interestingly however, some consonants can also change the target feature from [back] to [front] in the harmony (cf. Levi, 2002). On the other hand, the Turkish /j/, which is claimed to be identical to /i/ in terms of articulation, is not involved in the harmony: It is transparent. This implies that /j/ and /i/ must not have identical features completely. The study, therefore, revisits the view that /j/ is a glide which differs from /i/ concerning the syllable structure only (e.g. Clements and Sezer, 1982), and investigates the interaction between palatalization and harmony by considering the behavior of /j/ in the Turkish and Karaim harmonies. The study provides an analysis in the line of V-place Theory (Clements and Hume, 1995) and highlights the need for distinctive fetaures in order to account for phonological processes such as harmony. The conclusions of the study are as follows: (i) Turkish /j/ is a true consonant, a liquid, whereas the Karaim /j/ is a glide, (ii) both Turkish vowel harmony and Karaim consonant harmony target [front], a V-place feature, (iii) Turkish consonants including this feature are involved in the harmony, (iv) phonological processes show that palatal, palatalized, and fronted are three distinct phenomena, and (v) phonological processes may refer to phonetic features.

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