Morphological constraints on suffix-initial consonant variation in paradigms of Turkic languages

Abstract

It is difficult to fully explain the distribution of suffix-initial consonants in paradigms of the Turkic languages, merely using the traditional ‘consonant assimilation’ model. By the data from intra-paradigmatic and inter-paradigmatic relations of Turkic languages, it can be concluded that suffix-initial consonant alternation is firstly subject to the morphological restrictions within paradigms, and then to the morphological constraints from other paradigms, due to the close inter-paradigmatic relations. The phonological features of stem-final segments, in fact, are not the determining factor.