Iskender, Halil Ibrahim (2015) The phonology of Arabic loanwords in Turkish : the case of t-palatalisation. PhD Thesis. SOAS, University of London. http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/20388 Copyright © and Moral Rights for this PhD Thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This PhD Thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this PhD Thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the PhD Thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full PhD Thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD PhD Thesis, pagination. THE PHONOLOGY OF ARABIC LOANWORDS IN TURKISH: THE CASE OF T-PALATALISATION HALIL IBRAHIM ISKENDER Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD 2015 Department of Linguistics SOAS, University of London Declaration for SOAS PhD thesis I have read and understood regulation 17.9 of the Regulations for students of the SOAS, University of London concerning plagiarism. I undertake that all the material presented for examination is my own work and has not been written for me, in whole or in part, by any other person. I also undertake that any quotation or paraphrase from the published or unpublished work of another person has been duly acknowledged in the work which I present for examination. Signed: ___________________ Date: __________________ 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Over the years that this research has been in progress, I have accumulated a deep gratitude to a number of people. I am particularly grateful to Dr. George Dedes for his altruism and willingness to read numerous drafts of this thesis in a limited time and to make me stay on the right track in forming my ideas. I would also like to express my gratitude to my former advisor Dr. Monik Charette for her inspired teaching, inexhaustible encouragement, gentle patience and invaluable friendship. I owe her a lot more than I can put into words. I would like to record my sincere debt of gratitude to the following for their sustained companionship, moral support, belief in me and for reminding me that there is a world outside of doctoral school: Shabber Ahmad, Abdullah Ahmadzai, Cihat Arınç, Ömer Aslan, Ethem Çalıkoğlu, Mahmoud Ibrahim, Yener Kılıç, Sibel Kocaer, Tuğrul Oktay, Murat Sağlam and Yakup Türkoğlu. A list of all to whom I am indebted will be very long to list here and, unfortunately, some of these names I have forgotten or did not learn at the outset although I shall always remember them with affection. However, I should acknowledge special thanks to my following friends, colleagues and tutors who have contributed to lightening my load with their help, friendship, knowledge, advice and sometimes just a smile or an email: Mustafa Ağır, Kerim Ağırman, Yakoob Ahmed, Necmi Akçay, Okan Ala, Ali Albay, Emel Albayrak, Hasan Altınbaş, Salih Altundere, Recep Ant, Zahit Atçıl, Erol Avcı, Munir Awad, Mustafa Aydoğdu, Prof. Hatice Aynur, Ali Ayten, Bünyamin Bayat, Enes Bayraklı, Mehmet Ali Biçer, Fahrettin Biçici, Prof. Ali Fuat Bilkan, Serkan Bölükbaşı, Erkam Boz, Cüneyt Çakırlar, Hasan Canbaz, Cemil Cengiz, Emre Ceylan, Mevlut Ceylan, Süleyman Ceylan, Asaf Osman Çeken, Osman Çetin, Cemil Çiloğlu, Akif Çınar, Dr. Annabel Cormack, Ismail Coşar, Rahman Dağ, Navid Dean, Dr. Ann Denwood, Dr. James Dickie, Fatih Doğan, Enes Erbay, Seydahmet Ercan, Hasan Ali Erdem, Ali Erken, Kazım Evecan, Alperen Evrin, Evrydiki Fotopoulou, 3 Talha Gökmen, Prof. Aslı Göksel, Sacid Göksu, Engin Gülen, Cevriye Gümüşçü, Mehmet Ali Gündoğdu, Atilla Gürbüz, Dr. Rachel Harrison, Ramon Harvey, Prof. Harry van der Hulst, Hasan Ilhan, Orhan Imamoğlu, Majid Jahangir, Prof. Cemal Kafadar, Selam Karaduman, Oğuz Kartav, Mubashir Khan, Mehmet Karzaoğlu, Leo Kaufman, Serkan Keçeci, Hüseyin Kılıç, Ishak Kılıç, Mustafa Koncagül, Emrah Korkmaz, Himmet Korkmaz, Hilal Küçük, Marianne Landau, Jahan Latif, Natasha Lemos, Mahsn Majidy, Simone Mauri, Ufuk Muncuk, Prof. Irina Nikolaeva, Ömer Ocak, Ayşegül Oktay, Prof. Mehmet Ölmez, Mustafa Örücü, Tom Owen-Smith, Ahmet Özçiftçi, Fatih Özgüven, Prof. Sumru Özsoy, Bilgehan Öztürk, Emin Öztürk, Nagendranath Patla, Dr. Markus Pöchtrager, Arif Rokhman, Dr. Kirsty Rowan, Bahadır Saygı, Muhittin Şahin, Sırrı Şenalp, Matt Spike, Hüsrev Tabak, Alper Taşçı, Ersin Teres, Eyüp Togan, Prof. Zehra Toska, Fatih Tozcu, Ibrahim Tunç, Sait Türkhan, Yvonne Turkistanli, Salih Tüzer, Sarvar Ubaydullaev, Shanti Ulfsbjorninn, Mehmet Uyarel, Hayati Uysal, Faruk Visca, Laurie Wasserman, Aynur Yalçınkaya, Ergin Yaman, Aydoğan Yanılmaz, Murat Yasavul, Ali Yavuz, Muhamber Yayan, Gülten Yazıcı, Caner Yelbaşı, Fahri Yıldırım, Hayrettin Yıldız, Mahmud Yıldız, Recep Yücedoğru, Ahmet Yücel and to each and every member of my family. Above all, I dedicate this work to my wife who has never complained about the time spent on this thesis, time which should have been shared with her. Her support and encouragement, not to mention the courtesy which accompanied them, have enabled me to pursue my personal visions and helped make this thesis a reality. 4 ABSTRACT This thesis examines the phonological conditions for loanword adaptations in modern Standard Turkish, with regards to the Government Phonology (GP) framework, by analysing Arabic loanwords in Turkish. The main contribution it makes to the study of phonology is an empirical and theoretical analysis of the loanword adaptation process in Turkish. Among many source languages, loanwords adapted from Arabic (pre-language reform, before 1932) are focused on specifically and the nativisation of foreign phonetic and phonological properties - i.e. consonant inventory and syllable structure - is studied. The thesis elaborates on the phonological environment which is needed for loanword adaptation. There are two main constraints that have to be taken into consideration when explaining the phonology of loanword adaptation: (i) The elemental content of sounds (ii) The syllable structure The thesis discusses these constraints in detail by analysing a specific phonological phenomenon - t-palatalisation - observed in Arabic loanwords. It shows how t-palatalisation operates by placing it in the theoretical context of GP. In order to explain phonological processes GP depends on certain universal principles and language-specific parameters. In GP, arbitrariness is not accepted in phonological phenomena. That is to say, there must always be a causal relationship between the phonological context and the phonological process that is taking place in it. With the help of the restrictiveness of GP, the aim of this thesis is to indicate that in contrast to what has been assumed in the literature, t-palatalisation in Turkish is not lexically but structurally determined by certain conditions. These conditions are independent of the source language, they are systematic and therefore they render t-palatalisation predictable. 5 CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................... 3 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... 5 CONTENTS ................................................................................................................... 6 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 8 AIM OF THE THESIS .................................................................................................... 10 OUTLINE OF THE THESIS ............................................................................................ 11 CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: GOVERNMENT PHONOLOGY ................................................................................ 13 1.1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 13 1.2. REPRESENTATION OF PHONOLOGICAL EXPRESSIONS .......................................... 15 1.2.1. Elements and Elemental Combinations ....................................................... 16 1.2.2. Constraints on Potential Combinations ....................................................... 19 1.3. LICENSING AND GOVERNMENT RELATIONS ........................................................ 20 1.3.1. Autosegmental and Prosodic Licensing ...................................................... 23 1.3.2. Licensing Inheritance .................................................................................. 25 1.3.3. Government ................................................................................................. 28 1.3.3.1. Headedness and Complexity ................................................................. 29 1.3.3.2. Constituent and Inter-constituent Government ..................................... 30 1.3.3.3. Projection Government ......................................................................... 32 1.3.4. Government-Licensing ................................................................................ 35 1.4. TEMPLATE HYPOTHESIS ...................................................................................... 37 1.4.1. Four-position Template ..............................................................................