Open AccessIs The Letter of /ı/ Archiphoneme In Turkish?
Author(s) -
Fatih Özek
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
turkish studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1308-2140
DOI - 10.7827/turkishstudies.4537
Subject(s) - turkish , history , political science , psychology , linguistics , philosophy
We can mention two letters of /ı/ in world languages. One ofthem is /ı/ (ы) vowel called "yeri" in Russian language and the other is/ı/ vowel that is designated with [ï] in alphabet of internationaltranscription and that almost belongs to the Turkish language. The /ı/vowel of the Turkish language is a velarized, narrow, flat velum vowel interms of its characteristic features. It has normal duration. /a/, /i/ and/u/ vowels are generally deemed as cardinal vowels of the Turkishlanguage. According to this common view, eight vowels in the Turkishlanguage derived from these vowels. However, A.N. Baskakov thinksthat /ı/ is an archiphoneme and [i,u,ü] vowels are variants of the /ı/phoneme. This different view has had an influence on issuance of thispaper. It is possible to define the archiphoneme as main voicecontaining characteristics of more than one voice or first known voicesof a language. The archiphonemes are strong voices. They usually retaintheir existences. However, such characteristics are not seen in /ı/phoneme. Following determinations can be considered as evidenceshereof:1. qlıç (~ qılıç) [cliç, cliz/kiliç] writings in Codex Cumanicus,2. Front palatalization of the /ı/ vowel in the first syllable (Uigur biş- ~ bış-‘mature, age out ’; Khorezm biş-; Kipchak biş- ~ piş-; Chagatai piş-; ETT piş-; Bashkir,Tatar, Turkmen, Azerbaijani biş-; Kazakh pis-; Uzbek, New Uigur, Gagauz, Trk. piş-