Apophony in Turkish onomatopoeic reduplications

Abstract

The present work investigates the sound alternations in Turkish onomatopoeic reduplications and provides an analysis based on apophony. I focus on the vocalic and consonantal alternations as the core data and raise the question whether Turkish onomatopoeic reduplication displays any regularities with respect to the vocalic and consonantal changes observed in the forms. I basically claim that the sound alternations in Turkish onomatopoeic reduplications follow from the Apophonic Path. Turkish implements A→U and U→U alternations from the Path for vocalic alternations, and A→U and Ø→I for consonantal alternations. As for the directionality, the idea in the thesis is that it is the first member which is the source of derivation and apophony. The thesis also argues that onomatopoeic reduplications are compounds, the members of which have their own internal domains in which vowel harmony works. There is a relationship between vowel harmony and apophony in that latter is a morphological operation which is visible to the former which is a phonological operation.