Liquid Consonants in Standard Turkish: Features and Phenomena

The aim of this thesis is to explore aspects of the phonology of liquid sounds - /l/ and /ɾ/ - in Standard (Istanbul) Turkish. The thesis focuses on two questions: i) what feature(s) is responsible for non-high vowel alternations triggered by liquid consonants in syllable codas, and ii) do liquid features play a role in affecting irregular suffixal allomorphy in verbs inflected for the aorist. While Turkish phonology, in general, and Turkish vocalic phonology, in particular, have been well studied (Lees 1961; Clements & Sezer 1982; Kirchner 1993; Kabak 2011, among others), the bearing that liquid consonants and their features have on the two aforementioned alternations has yet to be treated in detail. As such, this thesis intends to begin filling this gap by arguing that, in both instances, the behavior of liquid consonants lends itself to a phonological account grounded in their featural characteristics