Türk Lehçelerindeki Bir Ses: Kapali é

Abstract

In spite of the use of the closed e in parallel with the open e and i sounds historically in Turkic language debates over it still continue. These debates being considered sometimes as alphabetic and in more sharp expression as a spelling problem; sometime it reached beyond phoneme and allophone debates. As a result of these debates some fallacious interpretations emerged. Sometimes apart from being a transition from i to e or from e to i this problem causes quite fallacious interpretations as absence of open e voice in Turkic language and consideration of open ə of Iranian origin. These two voices as a phoneme different from each other were existing in Turkic from the very beginning and currently exist in the modern Turkic dialect. In some Turkic alphabets two different letters are used for these two voices. In others, for example in Turkish language, two voices are denoted by one letter. In common turkic alphabet for these two voices two different “e” (half closed e) and “a” (open ə) letters are used. In modern turkic dialects the original closed é voices are best protected in Oguz group. In others closed é voices sometimes are turned into i and sometimes into long or characterized as diphthong "ie" voice.