e population of speakers of Turkish is estimated at around 51 million (Ethnologue). Language and language reform are hot political issues in Turkey with an ongoing battle between supporters of a traditional lexicon and those who support a modern, turkified one with a large number of borrowings from western European languages. Religious publications have not been as deeply affected by language reform as secular literature. They continue to use a form of Turkish that relies on Arabic and Persian vocabulary and syntax. The resurgence of Islam in the 1990s has led to the reintroduction of many Islamic words into modern spoken Turkish. Modern standard Turkish is based on the Istanbul dialect. Turkish has 20 consonant phonemes. There are no consonant clusters at the beginning of words. Stops, fricatives, and affricates are devoiced in final position, eg, kitap «book» (In the nominative case), kitab «book» (In the accusative case). Can divide Turkish consonants into two categories:
. Voiceless consonants:?, F, h, k, p, s, ю, t
. Voiced consonants: all the othersvariable consonants are: t / d, p / b,? / C.change 1: concerns the initial consonant of newly added suffixes beginning in t / d or? / C: of word is voiceless => t or? of word is a vowel => d or cof word is voiced => d or c:? t (milk) +?? / c? => s? t?? (Milkman); the suffix begins in? because s? t has a voiceless end consonant. (coffee) +? i / ci => kahveci (coffee house keeper); the suffix begins in c because kahve ends by a vowel. (house) + te / de => evde (in the house); the suffix begins in d because ev has a voiced end consonant.change 2: final consonant of preceding word (or suffix) changes when a new suffix is ??added: immediately followed by a suffixed vowel,? -> c; t-> d; p-> bimmediately followed by a suffixed consonant, c->?; d-> t; b-> p: РA? (Tree) ends with a з. If we add the-ta suffix we «ll get aрa? Ta (in the tree). If we add the-е suffix we »ll get aрacе.
Table 3. Consonant phonemes of Standard Turkish
BilabialLabiodentalDentalAlveolarPostalveolarPalatalVelarGlottalPlosivespbtdcjk ? NasalsmnFricativesfvsz ? ? ? hAffricates?? TaprApproximantjLateral approximantsll sh in shop s in measure? sh in sheen c - jno equivalents in English no equivalent in Englisht ch in cheapd j in jeepll in bull
G - g - Always a hard «g» as in «got». Never soft.
?-?- Not exactly a consonant, it rather distinguishes properties of the vowel it follows. When following a member of the «dark» vowels (a, o, u,?) it lengthens the vowel, causing it to be held for two beats instead of one. This is not the same as stress, but rather like the difference between «saw off» and «soft»: the former «aw» sound is held for twice the time of the latter. When following a member of the «light» vowels (e, i,?,?) it becomes a gliding «i» sound. The phoneme /?/Usually referred to as yumu? ak g («soft g»),? in Turkish orthography, actually represents a rather weak front-velar or palatal approximant between front vowels. It never occurs at the beginning of a word, but always follows a vowel. When word-final or preceding another consonant, it lengthens the preceding vowel. [21] sounds [c], [? ] And [l] are in complementary distribution with [k], [g] and [? ], The former occurring with f...
