Phonetic Analysis of Common Verbs in Kyrgyz and Khakass Turkish

Abstract

Along with the grammatical studies on the historical periods of Turkish dialects, comparative studies among contemporary Turkish dialects are of great significance in learning these dialects better, understanding the similarities and differences between dialects in a better way, as well as in the language journey towards the origins of Turkish. Kyrgyz and Khakass Turkish are two of the Turkish dialects that the learning of unknown ones will contribute to a deeper understanding of Turkish. Kyrgyzstan, where Kyrgyz is most widely used, is in the southeast of the Turkic world and gained its independence in 1991. The country has a population of seven million. Among the three dialects of Kyrgyz, the northern dialect is accepted as the official language in Kyrgyzstan. Khakassia, where Khakass is spoken, is one of the autonomous regions located in the south of Central Siberia within the Russian Federation and its population is approximately five hundred thousand, although approximately fifty-five thousands of them are Khakas. There are four dialects in Khakassian and the Sagay-Kachin dialect is used as the official language. This study examined the vowels in Kyrgyz, which is in the Kipchak group of Turkish dialects, and Khakassian, one of the Southern Siberian Turkish dialects, and the phonological differences between the two dialects through common verbs. The sound phenomena in both languages are given by comparing them with Old Turkish. These sound phenomena are grouped under the headings of vowel contraction, vowel shortening, vowel rounding, vowel thickening, vowel derivation, vowel clipping, vowel flattening, and vowel dropping. By determining the phonological similarities, we believe that the analysis of the common verbs between the two Turkic languages will contribute to future conducted studies in the field.