Consonant Mutation 1

Consonant Mutation Changes in Spelling to reflect Changes in Pronunciation In Turkish the spelling of the words is changed when the pronunciation changes. Generally this does not happen in English, when we change the pronunciation we do not change the spelling. In fact we often change the spelling when the pronunciation is the same so that we can recognize the meaning. A number of words can easily show this - meet vs meat, feet vs feat, right vs write, main vs mane, sea vs see, and many more. For example, if English were written phonetically, the word does should be spelt duz. Turkish however being a phonetically written language will make these changes in spelling. The reason for the changes in pronunciation are only for ease of speaking and are only concerned with consonants which have voiced and unvoiced equivalents. The Equivalents are as follows: In Turkish when a word ends in a consonant it is usually the Un-Voiced Form The word for letter is mektup, but my letter is mektubum, the terminal -p has changed to -b - see equivalent chart below. This is simply because it is easier to pronounce and in Turkish the spelling must reflect this change for the rules of phonetics to operate. Unvoiced and Voiced Letter Equivalents Unvoiced p equivalent to Voiced b Unvoiced f equivalent to Voiced v Unvoiced ç equivalent to Voiced c Unvoiced s no equivalent - Unvoiced t equivalent to Voiced d Unvoiced ş no equivalent - Unvoiced k equivalent to Voiced ğ Unvoiced h no equivalent - The last three - s, ş, h - do not have a unvoiced form, as they are not really voiced consonants, but they do affect the added suffix as they are considered as unvoiced consonants: 1. nefis - delicious - becomes - nefistir - it is (certainly) delicious - not nefisdir. 2. sabah - morning - becomes - sabahtan - from morning - not sabahdan 3. güneş - sun - becomes - güneşten - from the sun - not güneşden ________ Examples of Changes Whenever unvoiced -k terminates a word it nearly always changes to voiced -ğ when suffixes beginning in a vowel are affixed to that word. The exceptions where no change is made are very few and will not be discussed here. Words ending in unvoiced -K change to voiced -Ğ- when a vowel is added Consonant Mutation Examples köpek - dog köpeğim - my dog bacak - leg bacağın - your leg topuk - ankle topuğu - his ankle bilek - wrist bileğimiz - our wrists gözlük - spectacles gözlüğünüz - your spectacles durak - bus stop durağa - to the bus stop görecek - will see göreceğim - I shall see yaptık - we did yaptığımız - that which we did bardak - glass (tumbler) bardağı - his glass

The consonant change from unvoiced -k to voiced -ğ- when adding suffixes is the most widespread mainly because so many Turkish words end in a terminal -k A Special Case Exception If the word ends in -nk. Then the terminal -k changes directly to a unvoiced -g as it is totally impossible to utter the letter cluster -nğ plus an added vowel. Examples where terminal -nk changes to -ng when adding a vowel denk - bale, equation becomes dengim - my bale ahenk - harmony, accord becomes ahengi - its harmony kepenk - shutter becomes kepenginiz - your shutter renk - color becomes rengimiz - our colour ________ Some other Minor Consonant Changes Some of the other unvoiced consonants which change to their voiced form in similar fashion are as follows: 1. -p changes to -b in front of suffixed vowels 2. -ç changes to -c in front of suffixed vowels 3. -t changes to -d in front of suffixed vowels Further Examples of Consonant Change Further Consonant Mutation Examples kitap - book kitabın - your book öğüt - advice öğüdüm - my advice tat - taste tadı - its taste ilaç - medicine ilacı - his medicine ağaç - tree ağacın - the tree's Single Syllable Word Roots The general rule is that single syllable words do not change their final unvoiced consonants in line with the general rule, hence: Unvoiced Roots - Single Syllable Words ak - white akı - the white/his white at - horse atı - the horse/his horse ek - addition eki - the addition/its addition et - meat eti - the meat/his, her, its meat göç - migration göçü - the migration ip - rope ipi - rope kaç? - how many? kaçıncı? - which one? kök - root kökü - the root/its root ok - arrow oku - the arrow/his arrow ot - grass otu - the grass/its grass saç - hair saçı - the hair/his, her hair sap - handle sapı - the handle/its handle suç - fault suçu - the fault/his,her, its fault süt - milk sütü - the milk/his, her its milk üç - three üçü - the three/trio But of course there are some exceptions to this rule where a single syllable word does take on its voiced form when adding a vowel suffix: Voiced Roots - Single Syllable Words but - thigh budu - the thigh/his,her,its thigh dip - bottom/base dibi - the bottom/the base/its bottom çok - a lot/much/very çoğu - the lot/his, her, its lot gök - sky göğü - the sky/its sky kap - vessel kabı - the vessel/his vessel kurt - worm/wolf kurdu - the worm, the wolf/his wolf uç - point/tip/end ucu - the point/his, her, its point yurt - tent yurdu - the tent, the village

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