JOURNAL OF IQRO – ЖУРНАЛ ИҚРО – IQRO JURNALI – volume 14, issue 02, 2025
ISSN: 2181-4341, IMPACT FACTOR ( RESEARCH BIB ) – 7,245, SJIF – 5,431
ILMIY METODIK JURNAL
Aynur Murad gizi Namazova
Phd student of ASPU, of the Department of Modern Azerbaijani Language, Azerbaijan
https://orcid.org/0009-0001-2498-8880
E-Posta:
THE ROLE OF PHONEMES IN THE GRAMMAR OF TURKISH LANGUAGES
Key words:
Turkic languages, linguistics, similar contrasts, phonemes, Oghuz dialects,
It is formed and pronounced as a result of a change in the articulation movement due to the
influence of neighboring sounds; In this respect, they are concrete units. In Saussure’s words, “a
phoneme is not a sound, it can only be represented by a sound.”
Phonemes appear in two parts: “segmental phonemes” and “segmental phonemes/combined
phonemes”. Segmented phonemes include vowel and consonant phonemes in the language.
These phonemes are so named because they are in separate parts. When it comes to segmented
phonemes in Turkish and many world languages; vowels, consonants and floating vowels
(semivowels/semivowels) that show both vowel and consonant characteristics come to mind.
Suprasegmental phonemes are pronunciation features that encompass more than one phoneme.
The ones used in Turkish are: “speed”, “wind pressure”, “harmony”, “tone change” and
“melody”. Here we will focus more on the distinguishing features of “segmental phonemes”.
Segmental phonemes are distinguished by their different properties. For example, we find the
phonemes “p” and “b” in the words “pak” and “bak-”. In fact, these two consonants are not only
“bilabial consonants” but also “explosive” consonants due to their point of articulation. The
contrast between these two phonemes, which have very similar properties, presents them as two
separate phonemes. In other words, this is a “differential property”. The contrasting or
distinguishing feature of the phoneme “p” and the phoneme “b” is whether the vocal cords
vibrate or not during the formation of these phonemes. In this respect, the phoneme “b” differs
from the phoneme “p” that does not vibrate the vocal cords by vibrating the vocal cords. In this
respect, we can list the distinguishing features of segmental phonemes as follows:
This distinctive feature exists only for consonant phonemes. Because all vowels come into
contact with the vocal cords when they are formed and vibrate them. However, some of the
consonants come into contact with the vocal cords when they are formed
(toned/voiced/soft/voiced consonants: b, c, d, g, ğ...), while others vibrate the vocal cords. When
they are formed from them (unvoiced/voiceless/hard/voiceless: p, ç, t, k, s, ş...), they do not come
into contact with the vocal cords and do not cause vibration in the vocal cords. Here, the contrast
of vibrativity and non-vibration such as p:b, ç:c, t:d... is one of the features that distinguish
phonemes (kam-gam, pulbul-, tik-dik-, at-ad, is-iz). This distinctive feature belongs to the
"mutual consonants" that have a tonal counterpart. Since the articulation points of the reciprocal
consonants are the same, they have such a different meaning. Non-reciprocal consonant
phonemes (the consonants m, n, l, r, and y that have no unstressed equivalent and the consonant
h that has no stressed equivalent) do not perform a meaning-differentiating function since they
do not have similar contrasts in terms of points of articulation.
REFERENCES
JOURNAL OF IQRO – ЖУРНАЛ ИҚРО – IQRO JURNALI – volume 14, issue 02, 2025
ISSN: 2181-4341, IMPACT FACTOR ( RESEARCH BIB ) – 7,245, SJIF – 5,431
ILMIY METODIK JURNAL
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