On a Sound Change in Proto-Turkic (original) (raw)
Related papers
On *p- and Other Proto-Turkic Consonants
Sino-Platonic Papers, 2022
The present study takes as a starting point the question of whether Proto-Turkic had an onset *h- or *p- and aims at reconstructing its consonantism. The answer to the initial question is searched for in the fourteen Turkic lexical loans of adjacent languages such as Mongolic, Kitan, Yeniseian, and Samoyedic. At first sight, the data provided by these loanwords seem ambiguous. However, once it is demonstrated that both the daughter languages of Proto-Turkic, namely Proto-Bulgar Turkic and Proto‑Common Turkic, had the historically unattested initials *d2- and *ń-, these data can be taken to point to the existence of *p- in these languages as well as in Proto-Turkic. The discussion is extended with the question of rhotacism and lambdacism. As regards the rhotacism, Proto-Turkic is assumed to have two rhotic consonants, phonologically denoted as */r1 r2/. The lambdacism, on the other hand, turns out to be a tougher problem. Based on several lexical borrowings into and from Turkic, a further consonant */t2/ is posited for Proto-Turkic. This consonant, originally of affricate and probably later of fricative pronunciation, yielded /š/ in Common Turkic and /l/ in Bulgar Turkic. Thus, the Proto-Turkic consonantism is reconstructed as having a series of consonants */t2 d2 r2/ that underwent serious changes in historical Turkic. Finally, */k2/ is added to this series to explain the correspondence of k- and vocalic onset between some Turco-Mongolic cognates. In addition, significant sound changes in the prehistory of Turkic are dated through external evidence. Key words: Proto-Turkic, onset consonant, lexical borrowing, consonantism
On the Old Turkic Verbal Suffix -zU
(An unpublished paper from 2013 containing some opinions on the historical phonology of Turkic which I no longer entertain) The ambiguous verbal suffix -zU occurs only twice in the whole Old Turkic corpus. In the introduction, it is concluded that it is a virtually obsolete causal converb. Having analysed the sound change *ǰ > z in Turkic by means of various cases, *-r2U and *-ǰU are presented as two equally possible Proto-Turkic reconstructions of the converbial suffix -zU. Since internal evidence is indecisive in reconstructing -zU as *-r2U or *-ǰU, external evidence is taken into account. The Mongolic converbs in -ǰi ~ -ǰU and -rUn are suggested as two possible cognates of -zU. Both are discussed in detail, and the Mongolic converb in -ǰi ~ -ǰU is ruled out due to its semantic discrepancy. It is concluded that Mongolic -rUn might be the cognate of Turkic -zU whereas Mongolic -ǰi ~ -ǰU is a borrowing of the Turkic converb in *-dI.
Turkic lexical borrowings in Samoyed, pt.2
2021
In this paper, further Turkic borrowings into the Samoyed languages are described in phonological and semantic terms. This line of research continues the system outlined in the first part of this paper series. In addition to Turkic borrowings, some Tungusic borrowings into Proto-Samoyed are also outlined. The following are borrowed from Turkic sources: Proto-Samoyed *tok- ‘to hit’, *kat- ‘to bind, sew’, *jäpɜrkɜ ‘soft’, *seŋ ~ *siŋ ‘rear part of a tent’, *so- ‘to scoop’, *pər ‘blister’, *ar- ‘to carry water’ and the following from Tungusic sources: Proto-Samoyed *kuŋkǝ ‘bend, bow’, *pujå ‘tinder’, *t’ǝpǝ ‘dirt’. These borrowings add to the previously known corpus of the near forty other Turkic borrowings into PS, and provide us with some additional insights into Tungusic borrowings made into Siberian languages.
The Turkic Languages edited by Lars Johanson and Éva Á. Csató
The Turkic Languages, 2022
The Turkic Languages is a reference book which brings together detailed discussions of the historical development and specialized linguistic structures and features of the languages in the Turkic family. Seen from a linguistic typology point of view, Turkic languages are particularly interesting because of their astonishing morphosyntactic regularity, their vast geographical distribution, and their great stability over time. This volume builds upon a work which has already become a defining classic of Turkic language study. The present, thoroughly revised edition updates and augments those authoritative accounts and reflects recent and ongoing developments in the languages themselves, as well as our further enhanced understanding of the relations and patterns of influence between them. The result is the fruit of decades-long experience in the teaching of the Turkic languages, their philology and literature, and also of a wealth of new insights into the linguistic phenomena and cultural interactions defining their development and use, both historically and in the present day. Each chapter combines modern linguistic analysis with traditional historical linguistics; a uniform structure allows for easy typological comparison between the individual languages. Written by an international team of experts, The Turkic Languages will be invaluable to students and researchers within linguistics, Turcology, and Near Eastern and Oriental Studies.
2010 Azeri morphology in Kryz (East-Caucasian). In: Turkic Languages 14, 14–42.
The paper deals with the copying of morphemes and patterns from Turkic into the morphology of Kryz, an East Caucasian language of northern Azerbaijan. The copied morphemes in question are clitics found in the periphery of the verb system (expressing evidentiality, indefiniteness) and valency–changing morphology imported globally together with Azeri forms, as well as adjective-forming derivational suffixes. The copied structures are more diverse, and have left a mark on many areas of the morphology, in both verb and noun phrases.
1998
The distinction low vs. high always has semantic implications and is not subject to harmony, e.g. Turkmen ädama 'to althe man' (dative), ädami" 'the man (accusative)'. Consonant Assimilations Consonant assimilations create further suffix allomorphs. A very common phenomenon is progressive devoicing after voiceless consonants, d> t, J > c, g > k, etc., e.g. Turkish gel-di 'came' vs. git-ti 'went', Uzbek üy-ga 'to the house' vs. e'Sik-ka 'to the dOOf'. The devoicing is relatively weak in some languages, and not always indicated orthographically. In the present volume, it is ignored in the notations for a few languages, e.g. Azerbaijanian-mAKdA. Certain languages display progressive assimilation of suffix-initial I to n, d, 0, t, etc., e.g. in the plural suffix-IAr: Kazakh at-tar 'horses', köl-der 'lakes', Bashkir taw-oar 'mountains' , Tuvan ')(pI-dar 'hands', nom-nar 'books'. Some Chuvash suffixes have allomorphs beginning with ej = written t (after I, r, n) and with r (otherwise), e.g. varman-eja 'in the forest', tu-ra 'on the mountain' (see Table 27.5, p. 439). Many suffixes have allomorphs with an initial consonant after stern-final vowels, and with an initial vowel after stern-final consonants. With the type-(V)C, the vowel is dropped when the stern ends in a vowel, e.g. Turkish ev-im 'my house', baba-m 'my father'. With the type-(C)V, the consonant is dropped when the stern ends in a consonant, e.g. Turkish basla-yan 'beginning', ol-an 'being', iki-~er 'two each', ür-er 'three each'. There are diachronic reasons for this variation, and it would be wrong to claim that the segments indicated in brackets are 'connective' sounds inserted epenthetically to prevent hiatus or to break up consonant clusters. A special kind of suffix variation is due to the so-called 'pronominal n' occurring in many languages between third-person possessive suffixes and case suffixes, e.g. Turkish-(s)I(n) in forms such as baba-sm-a 'to his/her father'. Prosodie Phenomena The main factor in word-Ievel accent is the capacity to carry high pitch. Underived items are accentable, e.g. at 'horse', or unaccentable, e.g. dA 'and, too'. Most Turkic languages have pitch accent, that is increase of the tone height, on the last syllable of native lexical items. Suffixes are classified into accentable ones, e.g. Turkish-DIm in Uyudum 'I sIept', and non-accentable ones, e.g.-(y)dIm in Uyurdum 'I would sleep'. Pitch accent occurs on the last accentable syllable in word forms, e.g. Turkish köylerde 'in the villages'. As a rule, personal suffixes of the pronominal type, copula markers, negation suffixes (except the negative-mAz or-mAs aorist) etc. are unaccented, e.g. Uyghur Sen kimsen? 'Who are you?', Ydzmidi '(S)he did not write'. This is also true of enclitic particles such as dA 'and, too'. There is also an interacting changeable dynamic stress accent, charac
Old Turkic -b, -b- versus -w, -w- and its implication for the periodization of Old Turkic
2023
The present paper argues for the existence of the final -b and medial -b- at least in some periods of Old Turkic, recently considered to be -w and -w- and often written as -v and -v-. The medial -b-, especially in the intervocalic position, is more prone to lenition, but synchronically it occurs even in those Turkic languages which do not normally allow -b, e.g. Turkish abartmak ‘to exaggerate’, ebe ‘midwife’ and Kazakh taban ‘sole’, keben ‘stack’. Although some Turkic languages allow no weak stops in the final or impose restrictions on several weak stops, there are three arguments in favour of their existence in Old Turkic. The first is that some modern languages preserved the OT word for ‘house’ in the form ep ~ ɪp ~ em (OT *äv could not change into ep or em) and the word for ‘fame’ in the form čap ~ šap (OT *čav could not change into čap or šap). The second is that OT -b is retained in the words borrowed into Mongolian even if it get in the intervocalic position, e.g. ab > aba ‘hunting’. The third argument is paradigmatic. If OT had other final weak stops such as -g, e.g. ög ‘mother’ and - d, e.g. äd ‘article’, it is very likely that it could also have -b. This argument is weaker than than the preceding two ones, for some modern languages allow -g, but do not allow -b and -d, e.g. Khakas, see below. However, it is Khakas that inherited OT -b and changed it into -p.