Editing Turkish language (section)

=== Vowels ===
[[File:Turkish 8 vowels' cube.png|thumb|upright=1.3|Vowels of Turkish.<ref name=zimmerorgun/>]]
The vowels of the Turkish language are, in their alphabetical order, {{angbr|a}}, {{angbr|e}}, {{angbr|ı}}, {{angbr|i}}, {{angbr|o}}, {{angbr|ö}}, {{angbr|u}}, {{angbr|ü}}.{{efn|The vowel represented by {{angbr|ı}} is also commonly transcribed as {{angbr IPA|ɨ}} in linguistic literature.}} The Turkish vowel system can be considered as being three-dimensional, where vowels are characterised by how and where they are articulated focusing on three key features: [[Vowel#Backness|front and back]], [[Roundedness|rounded and unrounded]] and [[Vowel#Height|vowel height]].<ref name=":12">{{Cite book|title=Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar|last1=Goksel|first1=Asli|last2=Kerslake|first2=Celia|publisher=Routledge|year=2005|isbn=0-415-11494-2|pages=24–25}}</ref> Vowels are classified [±back], [±round] and [±high].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Khalilzadeh|first=Amir|date=Winter 2010|title=Vowel Harmony in Turkish|journal=Karadeniz Araştırmaları: Balkan, Kafkas, Doğu Avrupa ve Anadolu İncelemeleri Dergisi|volume=6|issue=24|pages=141–150}}</ref>

The only [[diphthong]]s in the language are found in [[loanword]]s and may be categorised as falling diphthongs usually analyzed as a sequence of /j/ and a vowel.<ref name=zimmerorgun/>

==== Vowel harmony ====
{{Further|Vowel harmony}}

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center; margin-left: 1em"
! rowspan="2" | Turkish Vowel Harmony
! colspan="4" | Front Vowels || colspan="4" | Back Vowels
|-
! colspan="2" | Unrounded || colspan="2" | Rounded || colspan="2" | Unrounded || colspan="2" | Rounded
|-
! Vowel
| style="border-right: 0;" | '''e''' {{IPAslink|e}}
| '''i''' {{IPAslink|i}} || '''ü''' {{IPAslink|y}}
| style="border-left: 0;" | '''ö''' {{IPAslink|ø}} || '''a''' {{IPAslink|a}}
| style="border-left: 0;" | '''ı''' {{IPAslink|ɯ}} || '''u''' {{IPAslink|u}}
| style="border-left: 0;" | '''o''' {{IPAslink|o}}
|- style="text-align: center;"
! Twofold (Backness)
| colspan="4" | '''e''' || colspan="4" | '''a'''
|- style="text-align: center;"
! Fourfold (Backness + Rounding)
| colspan="2" | '''i''' || colspan="2" | '''ü''' || colspan="2" | '''ı''' || colspan="2" | '''u'''
|}

<!--NOTICE: Please do not remove/change the following image (File:TurkishRoadSign-WelcomeToEurope Modified.jpg) as it is referred from within the text to illustrate some linguistic concepts-->[[File:TurkishRoadSign-WelcomeToEurope Modified.jpg|thumb|Road sign at the European end of the [[Bosphorus Bridge]] in [[Istanbul]]. (Photo taken during the 28th [[Istanbul Marathon]] in 2006)]]

The principle of vowel harmony, which permeates Turkish word-formation and suffixation, is due to the natural human tendency towards economy of muscular effort.<ref name="mundy">{{cite book|last=Mundy|first=C.|title=Turkish Syntax as a System of Qualification.|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1957|pages=279–305}}</ref> This principle is expressed in Turkish through three rules:

# If the first vowel of a word is a back vowel, any subsequent vowel is also a back vowel; if the first is a front vowel, any subsequent vowel is also a front vowel.<ref name="mundy"/>
# If the first vowel is unrounded, so too are subsequent vowels.<ref name="mundy"/>
# If the first vowel is rounded, subsequent vowels are either rounded and close or unrounded and open.<ref name="deny">{{cite book|last=Deny|first=J.|title=Grammaire de la langue turque.|location=Paris|publisher=Éditions E. Leroux|year=1921}}</ref>

The second and third rules minimize muscular effort during speech. More specifically, they are related to the phenomenon of labial assimilation:<ref name="gabain">{{cite book|last=von Gabain|first=A.|title=Alttürkische Grammatik|year=1950}}</ref> if the lips are '''rounded''' (a process that requires muscular effort) for the first vowel they may stay rounded for subsequent vowels.<ref name="deny"/> If they are '''unrounded''' for the first vowel, the speaker does not make the additional muscular effort to round them subsequently.<ref name="mundy"/>

Grammatical [[affix]]es have "a chameleon-like quality",<ref name=lewis1953>{{cite book|last=Lewis|first=Geoffrey|author-link=Geoffrey Lewis (Turkish scholar)|title=Teach Yourself Turkish|url=https://archive.org/details/teachyourselftur00lewirich|url-access=registration|publisher=English Universities Press|year=1953| isbn=978-0-340-49231-4 }}</ref>{{rp|21}} and obey one of the following patterns of vowel harmony:
* '''twofold (''-e/-a'')''':{{efn|For the terms ''twofold'' and ''fourfold'', as well as the superscript notation, see Lewis (1953), pages 21-22.<ref name=lewis1953/>}} In his more recent works Lewis prefers to omit the superscripts, on the grounds that "there is no need for this once the principle has been grasped" (Lewis [2001]).<ref name=lewis2001/>{{rp|18}} the [[locative case]] suffix, for example, is ''-de'' after front vowels and ''-da'' after back vowels. The notation ''-de''² is a convenient shorthand for this pattern.
* '''fourfold (''-i/-ı/-ü/-u'')''': the [[genitive case]] suffix, for example, is ''-in'' or ''-ın'' after unrounded vowels (front or back respectively); and ''-ün'' or ''-un'' after the corresponding rounded vowels. In this case, the shorthand notation ''-in''<sup>4</sup> is used.

Practically, the twofold pattern (also referred to as the e-type vowel harmony) means that in the environment where the vowel in the word stem is formed in the front of the mouth, the suffix will take the e-form, while if it is formed in the back it will take the a-form. The fourfold pattern (also called the i-type) accounts for rounding as well as for front/back.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book|title=Turkish Grammar|last=Underhill|first=Robert|publisher=The MIT Press|year=1976|isbn=0-262-21006-1|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|pages=25}}</ref> The following examples, based on the [[Turkish copula|copula]] ''-dir''<sup>4</sup> ("[it] is"), illustrate the principles of i-type vowel harmony in practice: ''Türkiye'<nowiki/>'''dir''''' ("it is Turkey"),{{efn|In modern Turkish orthography, an apostrophe is used to separate proper names from any suffixes.}} ''kapı'''dır''''' ("it is the door"), but ''gün'''dür''''' ("it is the day"), ''palto'''dur''''' ("it is the coat").<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Husby|first=Olaf|title=Diagnostic use of nonword repetition for detection of language impairment among Turkish speaking minority children in Norway|url=https://www.academia.edu/3029750|journal=Working Papers Department of Language and Communication Studies NTNV|language=en|volume=3/2006|pages=139–149|via=Academia.edu|access-date=2017-07-28|archive-date=2022-10-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221023093307/https://www.academia.edu/3029750|url-status=live}}</ref>

===== Exceptions to vowel harmony =====
These are four word-classes that are exceptions to the rules of vowel harmony:

# '''Native, non-compound words''', e.g. ''{{lang|tr|dahi}}'' "also", ''{{lang|tr|ela}}'' "light brown", ''{{lang|tr|elma}}'' "apple", ''{{lang|tr|hangi}}'' "which", ''{{lang|tr|hani}}'' "where", ''{{lang|tr|inanmak}}'' "to believe", ''{{lang|tr|kardeş}}'' "sibling", ''{{lang|tr|şişman}}'' "fat", ''{{lang|tr|anne}}'' "mother"
# '''Native compound words''', e.g. ''{{lang|tr|bugün}}'' "today", ''{{lang|tr|dedikodu}}'' "gossip", ''{{lang|tr|haydi}}'' "come on"
# '''Foreign words''', e.g. ''{{lang|tr|ferman}}'' (< Farsi ''{{lang|fa|فرماندهی}}'' "command"), ''{{lang|tr|mikrop}}'' (< French ''{{lang|fr|microbe}}'' "microbe"), ''{{lang|tr|piskopos}}'' (< Greek ''{{lang|el|επίσκοπος}}'' "bishop")
# '''Invariable suffixes:''' '''–daş''' (denoting common attachment to the concept expressed by the noun), '''–yor''' (denoting the present tense in the third person), '''–ane''' (turning adjectives or nouns into adverbs), '''–ken''' (meaning "while being"), '''–leyin''' (meaning "in/at/during"), '''{{lang|tr|–imtırak}}''' (weakening an adjective of color or taste in a way similar to the English suffix –ish as in blueish), '''–ki''' (making a pronoun or adjective out of an adverb or a noun in the locative case), '''–gil''' (meaning "the house or family of"), '''–gen''' (referring to the name of plane figures)
{| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;"
! scope="col" | Invariable suffix
! scope="col" | Turkish example
! scope="col" | Meaning in English
! scope="col" | Remarks
|-
| '''–daş'''
| ''{{lang|tr|meslektaş}}'' || "colleague"
| From ''{{lang|tr|meslek}}'' "profession."
|-
| '''–yor'''
| ''{{lang|tr|geliyor}}'' || "he/she/it is coming"
| From ''{{lang|tr|gel–}}'' "to come."
|-
| '''–ane'''
| ''{{lang|tr|şahane}}'' || "regal"
| From ''{{lang|tr|şah}},'' "king."
|-
| '''–ken'''
| ''{{lang|tr|uyurken}}'' || "while sleeping"
| From ''{{lang|tr|uyu–}},'' "to sleep."
|-
| '''–leyin'''
| ''{{lang|tr|sabahleyin}}'' || "in the morning"
| From ''{{lang|tr|sabah}},'' "morning."
|-
| '''–imtırak'''
| ''{{lang|tr|ekşimtırak}}'' || "sourish"
| From ''{{lang|tr|ekşi}},'' "sour."
|-
| '''–ki'''
| ''{{lang|tr|ormandaki}}'' || "(that) in the forest"
| From ''{{lang|tr|orman}},'' "forest."
|-
| '''–gil'''
| ''{{lang|tr|annemgiller}}'' || "my mother's family"
| From ''{{lang|tr|annem}},'' "my mother."
|-
| '''–gen'''
| ''{{lang|tr|altıgen}}''  || "hexagon"
| From ''{{lang|tr|altı}},'' "six."
|-
|}

The [[#Phonology|road sign in the photograph]] above illustrates several of these features:
* a native compound which does not obey vowel harmony: ''Orta+köy'' ("middle village"—a place name)
* a loanword also violating vowel harmony: ''viyadük'' (< French ''viaduc'' "viaduct")
* the possessive suffix''-i''<sup>4</sup> harmonizing with the final vowel (and softening the ''k'' by consonant [[alternation (linguistics)|alternation]]): ''viyadüğü''{{citation needed|date=July 2014}}

The rules of vowel harmony may vary by regional dialect. The dialect of Turkish spoken in the [[Trabzon]] region of northeastern Turkey follows the reduced vowel harmony of [[Old Anatolian Turkish]], with the additional complication of two missing vowels (ü and ı), thus there is no [[palatal harmony]]. It is likely that ''elün'' meant "your hand" in Old Anatolian. While the 2nd person singular possessive would vary between back and front vowel, -ün or -un, as in ''elün'' for "your hand" and ''kitabun'' for "your book", the lack of ü vowel in the Trabzon dialect means -un would be used in both of these cases — ''elun'' and ''kitabun''.<ref name=turkic>{{Cite book| publisher = Otto Harrassowitz Verlag| isbn = 978-3-447-05212-2| last1 = Boeschoten| first1 = Hendrik| last2 = Johanson| first2 = Lars| last3 = Milani| first3 = Vildan| title = Turkic Languages in Contact| date = 2006}}</ref>
{{expand section|reason=Minor vowel harmony (low rounded vowel placement in first syllable only) not covered.|date=August 2018}}