Irregularities in Turkic languages

by Eyup Bacanli

Book cover: Irregularities in Turkic languages

Extent: 338 pages

Publisher: Harrassowitz Verlag

Subjects: Language & Linguistics

Series: Turcologica

Series volume number: 123

Language: English

Paperback (Published)

(December 2020)

ISBN: 9783447115445

Price: $97.00

Out of stock

The volume addresses morphophonological irregularities and asymmetries found in Turkic languages. The lexically determined irregularities such as suppletion, augments to stems, sound drops from stems, restricted suffixes, non-phonological uses of phonological allomorphs, as well as the morphologically-determined asymmetry cases are examined in the light of a canonical approach and allomorphy conditioning.


The volume by Eyup Bacanli addresses morphophonological (formal) irregularities and asymmetries found in Turkic languages. The lexically determined irregularities such as suppletion (e.g. Chuvash atte as-u ‘father your father’), augments to stems (Turkish ne ney-im ‘what my what’), sound drops from stems (Kazakh al- a-p ‘take by taking’), restricted suffixes (e.g. Old Turkic o?ul o?l-a ‘child children’), non-phonological uses of phonological allomorphs (Turkmen adam-sy ‘her husband’), as well as the morphologically-determined asymmetry cases (e.g. Sakha at-im aq-qa ap-p-ar ‘my horse to (the) horse to my horse’) are examined in the light of a canonical approach and allomorphy conditioning. Phonologically determined radical and affixal allomorphs are regarded as regular; e.g. Chuvash pu-e > pevv-e ‘her/his/its tall’. The discussion section presents a typology of irregularities on cross-linguistic and cross-Turkic levels and suggests an agglutinating hierarchy for individual Turkic languages. Numerous examples hail from turcological literature and language-targeted questionnaires. Thus, this book supplements linguists’ and turcologists’ understanding of the grammatical and lexical limits of Turkic languages.

  • By (author) Eyup Bacanli