A GENERATIVE PHONOLOGY OF AZERBAIJANI By HOSSEINGHOLI SALIMI A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE COUNCIL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 1976 To my Mother ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This study could not have reached even this stage without the help and constant encouragement of Professor Bohdan Saciuk, my advisor and chairman of the supervisory committee, to whom I owe more than my acquaintance with phonology. I am greatly indebted to all my professors at The Program in Linguistics at the University of Florida. My debt to Professors Jayne McCarthy is greatest. Gratefully do I acknowledge Professor Harder's genuine humane concern for my success, and Professors Chu and McCarthy's valuable friendship. I am also indebted to Professor Jean Casagrande, the present Director of The Program in Linguistics, for the grant of a teaching assist fnship and his arrangement for typing part of this study. To Professor Irving Wershow, the former Director of The Program in Linguistics, I am deeply indebted for the grant of partial financial aid during my study at the University of Florida. To Professors Mamedaga Shiralioglu Shiraliyev of the Institute of Philology, Azerbaijani Academy of Sciences, Omeljan Pritsak, Director of Harvard University Ukrainian Research Institute, and Harold Riker of the School of Education, University of Florida, I am greatly indebted. Pro- fessors Shiraliyev and Pritsak agreed to read and criticize this study, and Professor Riker served as a member of the supervisory committee. My sister Lamieh Sal i mi has in innumerable ways contributed to my success, also by furnishing invaluable primary sources in Azerbaijani. It is also a pleasure to acknowledge the kind help of the Librarians in the Graduate Research Library, University of Florida. Mr. J. Roy Jones, the Social Science Research Librarian, was always ready to help most generously, especially in granting permission to check out reference books for long periods, and Mr. Sherman Butler, Head of the Interlibrary Loan Department, graciously obtained for my use every book I needed from special collections in other libraries throughout the United States. My profoundest indebtedness has been to my mother, sisters, and brother whose sacrifices for my sake have been unfathomable. Obviously, any virtue detectable in this study acknowledges my indebtedness to the above mentioned persons especially Professor Saciuk, and the many weaknesses therein reveal my own ignorance. TV TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS in LIST OF TABLES vi ABSTRACT vi i CHAPTER I: THE POSITION OF AZERBAIJANI AMONG TURKIC LANGUAGES 1 Notes 10 CHAPTER II: A REVIEW OF THE EXISTING TREATMENT OF AZERBAIJANI PHONOLOGY 12 Notes 55 CHAPTER III: AZERBAIJANI PHONOLOGICAL SEGMENTS 61 Notes 101 CHAPTER IV: AZERBAIJANI PHONOLOGICAL RULES 107 Notes 152 CHAPTER V: NATIVIZATION IN AZERBAIJANI 155 Notes 164 CHAPTER VI : CONCLUSION 166 BIBLIOGRAPHY 169 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 172 v LIST OF TABLES Page TABLE 1 Azerbaijani underlying consonants 105 TABLE 2 Azerbaijani underlying vowels 105 TABLE 3 The phonetic chart of Azerbaijani consonants and vowels 106 vi Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate Council of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy A GENERATIVE PHONOLOGY OF AZERBAIJANI By Hosseingholi Sa 1 i mi December, 1976 Chairman: Professor Bohdan Saciuk Major Department: Linguistics This study, consisting of five chapters and a summary, presents a generative phonology of the Tabriz dialect of Azerbaijani. The first chapter sketches Azerbaijani among Turkic languages, and briefly refers to the literary dialect of the Northern Azerbaijan, styles of speech, and the Tabriz dialect. The second chapter examines six previous works on Azerbaijani phonology and finds a reanalysis of the [+ high] stops and affricates necessary. The third chapter presents an argument for positing a pair of velar stops and deriving the palatal stops from them by rule. This chapter also briefly argues for one underlying seg- ment inventory for all Azerbaijani dialects. Consequently, it argues that despite phonetic difference the dental affricates and alveopalatal retroflex affricates in some dialects of Azerbaijani (as in the Tabriz dialect), and the alveopalatal affricates and palatal stops in some other dialects (as in the Baku dialect) come from the same underlying segments, i.e., from the alveopalatal affricates and velar stops. The fourth chapter contains the majority of the phonological rules in this study. Chapters two, three and five, too, contain some of the rules. Vll Some of the rules are apparently formulated for the first time, and those that appear also in traditional analyses, are formulated with re- gard to the general principles of generative phonology. The fifth chapter viewing nativization as the inconspicuous occurrence of a loan- word in a speech style of a borrowing language, sketches nativization in Azerbaijani. Here it is suggested that, in nativization, in addition to the general rules of Azerbaijani phonology and the rules of nativization, which like the general rules apply to the underlying representations, there are also the rules that replace the unfamiliar foreign segments with native approximations in the lexical entries. It is observed that there is almost always a direct relationship between the number of the rules and the degree of nativization. Finally, it is suggested that nativization affects also the borrowing language. Vlll CHAPTER I THE POSITION OF AZERBAIJANI AMONG TURKIC LANGUAGES Introduction 1.1. Azerbaijan is a geographical area occupying a province of Persia to the south and a republic of the Soviet Union to the north of the Aras river. In this dissertation we are concerned with the language of Azerbaijan, specifically its phonology. 1.2. Azerbaijani is a new name for the Turkic language spoken in Azerbaijan and nearby lands^ since centuries ago. In Southern Azerbaijan it is largely a spoken language and occasionally the language of poetry, whereas in Northern Azerbaijan it is the official language of the repub- lic. Despite the fact that for centuries it has been called TLirki in Persia and Azerbaijan, the name Azerbaijani, particularly in linguistic discussions is preferable because Turki , formally referring to the Eastern Turkic, is ambiguous. Another ambiguous name used for Azerbai- jani is Azeri which is the name of an Iranian language replaced by our Turkic Azerbaijani. Other names used for Azerbaijani have been Turk dili 1 'the Turkic language , Turkcha 'Turkic', Azerbaijan Turkchasi 'Azerbai- jani Turkish', Azeri Turkchasi 'Azeri Turkish', and even 'the Caucasian Tatar Language' (Dami rchizada 1972:3). 1.3. In this study we shall use the name Azerbaijani, for however else it is named 'for centuries this language has been the language of the heart and the mould of the thought and feeling of [the people of Azerbaijan]' (Farzana 1965:2), and it remains 'the language of the heart, 1 2 street, and home for the people of Azerbaijan 1 (Karang 1961: Introduc- tion). 2 1.4. Azerbaijani is spoken by more than seven million people in Southern and Northern Azerbaijan. Smaller groups, too, in the Middle and Near East speak dialects of Azerbaijani. As for its distribution in Persia, outside Azerbaijan, 'Turkic minorities speaking an Azarb dialect [are] found practically in all major cities' (Menges 1951:278). 1.5. An attempt to properly locate Azerbaijani in time and place among the Turkic languages would require an independent study. But in a brief introduction of the kind presented here it may be said that when Bulgar-Chuvash and Yakut, the Turkic languages of the Northwestern and Northeastern extremities of the Turkic world, respectively , are excluded (because they have early branched out and stayed away from the general confluence shared by the rest of the Turkic languages), we may start with the assumption that prior to about the ninth century the Turkic world shared an almost common Turkic of which the Yenisei and Orkhon inscriptions of the seventh to the eighth centuries (Jensen 1969:422) are later records. We may call this Old Turkic. 1.6. The period of the ninth to the thirteenth centuries is the time when within the common Old Turkic there developed characteristics which justify major subdivisions, i.e., we find divisions like South- eastern or Karluk, Northwestern or Kipchak, and Central or Oghuz. The Oghuz group has a really central position because it contains character- istics from both the Southeastern and the Northwestern, i.e., the Kar- luk group and the Kipchak Turkic. 1.7. Comprehensive systems of classifications of Turkic languages have been worked out by renowned Turkologists. In two of the broadest of these classifications Azerbaijani can be seen as (1) an Eastern Tur- kic, or (2) a Southwestern Turkic dialect. 1.8. (1) Azerbaijani is an Eastern Turkic dialect if Turkic lan- grages are divided into a Western group comprising ancient Volga Bui gar and modern Chuvash, and anEastern group embracing all other Turkic lan- guages. This classification proposed by Samoylovich and amended by Rasanen (Krader 1966:33) is based on a few simple sound features. 1.9. Whereas Western Turkic languages have final -r (e.g., Bulgar [taxar] 'nine'). Eastern Turkic languages have final -z_ (e.g., Oghuz [toguz] 'nine'). The -z group is further divided on the basis of having intervocalic d_ (e.g., medieval Kirgiz and medieval