Abstract
ON PHONEMIC STATUS OF PHARYNGEAL VOWELS IN TUVA TURKISH
The common belief on pharyngeal vowels in Tuva Turkish is that they have evolved from primary short vowels. However, through analysis of more than 900 words, this study demonstrates that in 10 different words, pharyngeal vowels have evolved from Proto- Turkic (PT) primary long vowels. This can be formulated as *V̅ > v’ / *V > v’. Whether they are evolving from short vowels or long vowels, pharyngeal vowels of Tuva Turkish are allophones of 2 different phonemes. This study aims to provide a comparative analysis of pharyngealization of primary long vowels and to analyze these vowels in terms of their phonemic status.
Keywords
Tuva Turkish, pharyngeal vowels, Proto-Turkic, phoneme.