Phonemes and Distinctive Allophones of Turkish

Abstract

Basically a phoneıne can be defined as a speech sound. However, the number of sounds does not equal the number of the phonemes. Although writing and speaking are independent of each other, when the alphabel is taken as the reference, it is said that there are eight vowels and twenty-one consonants in standard Turkish. This may mean that there are twenty-nine phonemes in standard Turkish. Claiming that there are 29 phonemes in Turkish is the main problem which gives rise too many linguistic problems. This paper will not deal with phonemes regarding their acoustic or physical features. Instead, by making use of native and borrowed words, this study aims to bring forth a thesis about the phoneme inventory of Turkish.