Syllabification and related phonological processes

Abstract

Abstract This chapter overviews syllable structure and syllabification processes in Turkish, detailing all major constituents of the syllable (e.g. onset, rhyme, nucleus, coda), as well as sketching out the various constraints that hold on them. As many phonological processes are essentially syllable repair processes, they find an in-depth coverage and explanation in this chapter, and novel analyses are proposed in accounting for their behavior. Among the many phonological processes covered are: vowel epenthesis (e.g. to repair complex onsets or SSP violations in complex codas), vowel deletion (e.g. to satisfy the maximally binary nature of Turkish rhymes), ambisyllabicity (especially of soft-g /ɰ/, a consonant that never appears in word-initial position), hiatus (along with its avoidance and inevitability), and compensatory lengthening. The last two are analyzed as a result of glide deletion, which is argued to be the primary motivation in Turkish for compensatory lengthening, as opposed to e.g. mora preservation. Processes that attracted much attention in previous literature, such as the famous k/Ø alternation and final devoicing, are also discussed, crucially along with exceptions to expected patterns, which are demonstrated to have a systematic behavior. Additionally, syllable structure is extended, proposing that /s/ functions as an appendix at word edges.