Name: Selis Tuana Tiryaki

Number: 30214921822

A. PROPERTIES OF LANGUAGE
There are five properties that’s unique to the human language. The most important one, I think, is the
productivity property. It’s also called creativity or open-endedness. This property of the language means
that the language is not limited; meaning, the potential number of expressions in any human language is
infinite, and it constantly grows. As the world we live in changes and the new things are getting created,
we also create new words, new combination of words etc. thanks to this property. Therefore, we can say
things that nobody ever said, or we can state some previous ideas in a new way. For example, I can say
“The elephant flied to the moon and back.” I’m sure you haven’t ever heard of this combination of the
words. And it can seem meaningless out of context. But I’m able to create this and if you process it, you
can fit it into a context. This means we can create infinite numbers of combination of the words and it
can all mean something. This helps us humans to state the same thing with different words and
combinations and this results in, for example, a lot of different literary works. One theme, one feeling is
described and told in so many ways in literature. But all of them circles around the same feelings; love,
pain etc. This is all possible due to this property. To state it more clearly, I want to give another example.
Years ago, when we didn’t have phones with cameras, the term “selfie” didn’t exist. Because we had no
use of it. But after the invention of smartphones, we needed a new word to describe a photo that’s
taken by the person in the photo himself/herself. So, we created one. This is also possible thanks to
productivity property of our human language. Without it, the language would get stuck in a mold and
could never be improved. This would also prevent human improvement because in order to improve one
should break out of the mold and create new things but that wouldn’t be possible without this property.
In conclusion, the productivity property allows humans to improve by providing them a space to create
new things.

B. SPEECH SOUNDS OF ENGLISH AND TURKISH/NATIVE LANGUAGE

Between English and Turkish languages, there are sounds that are the same as well as sounds which do
not have exact correspondence. In this paper, this issue will be examined under 3 aspects. Firstly,
information on the articulatory phonetics and examination of sounds will be presented in terms of
voicing, place of articulation, manner of articulation, position of the tongue, height of the tongue,
roundness and tenseness. Secondly, the sounds that English and Turkish languages have in their
inventory will be presented in addition to examination and comparison of the sounds that are divided
into categories. Finally, the evaluation of how knowing sound systems in English and Turkish can
attribute to teaching.

Articulatory phonetics examines the consonant sounds in three main categories; voicing, place of
articulation and manner of articulation.

1. Voicing
While a sound is being produced, if the vocal cords
 are vibrating, the sound is voiced -also shown as “V+”.
 are NOT vibrating, the sound is voiceless -also shown as “V-“
 2. Place of articulation
While a sound is being produced,
 if both lips are on the use, the sound is a bilabial sound.
 if the lower lip and upper teeth are on the use, it is a labiodental sound.
 if the tip of the tongue and the upper front teeth are on the use, it is an interdental sound.
 if the tongue and the alveolar ridge are on the use, it is an alveolar sound.
 if the tongue and the palate are on the use, it is a palatal sound.
 if the tongue and the between alveolar ridge and palate are on the use, it is an alveo-
palatal sound.
 if the back of the tongue and the velum are on the use, it is a velar sound.
 if the glottis is on the use, it is a glottal sound.
 if the lips and the velum are on the use, it is a labiovelar sound.

3. Manner of articulation
While a sound is being produced,
 if the airflow is closed completely for a moment then suddenly released, it is a stop sound.
 if the airflow goes out of our nasal cavity, it is a nasal sound.
 if the airflow passes through a narrow opening in the vocal tract (so a friction takes place),
it is a fricative sound.
 if the air is closed then the airflow is released with a friction, it is an affricate sound.
 if the air goes on the sides of the tongue, it is a lateral approximant sound.
 if the air goes on the central of the tongue, it is a central approximant sound.
 If the tongue tip is thrown against the alveolar ridge for an instant, it is a tap/flap sound.

Articulatory phonetics examines the vowel sounds in four main categories; position of the tongue, height
of the tongue, roundness and tenseness.

1. Position of the tongue

While producing vowels,
 if the tongue is in the front, it is a front vowel.
 if the tongue is in the central part, it is a central vowel.
 if the tongue is in the back, it is a back vowel.

2. Height of the tongue

While producing vowels,
 if the tongue is in the high position, it is a high vowel.
 if the tongue is in the middle, it is a mid vowel.
 if the tongue is in the low position, it is a low vowel.

3. Roundness
While producing vowels,
 if the lips are rounded, it is a rounded vowel.
 if the lips are unrounded, it is an unrounded vowel.

4. Tenseness
 While producing vowels,
 if there is more tension, it is a tense vowel.
 if there is less tension, it is a lax vowel.

ENGLISH SOUNDS

The English alphabet contains 26 letters; five of them are vowels and the rest are consonants. But, due to
the fact that English is not a language that’s read as it’s written, there are more than 26 sounds in the
language. Depending on the combination of the letters, they make up different sounds. In the charts
below, you can find these sounds (written in the international phonetic alphabet) next to the examples.
The represented sounds in the words are in bold.

a. Consonants

SOUNDS EXAMPLES SOUNDS EXAMPLES

/p/ potatoe /ð/ these
/b/ brother /s/ side
/t/ tip /z/ zebra
/d/ difference /ʃ/ shine
/k/ case /ʒ/ genre
/g/ gate /h/ hate
/m/ mirror /tʃ/ chalk
/n/ never /dʒ/ joke
/ŋ/ going /l/ label
/f/ phone /ɹ/ real
/v/ vape /j/ you
/θ/ think /w/ wise

b. Vowels

SOUND EXAMPLES SOUND EXAMPLES

S S
/i/ he /o/ arrow
/u/ pool /ɛ/ bed
/ı/ tip /ə/ away
/ʊ/ pull /a/ father
/e/ same /ɔ/ dawn
/ʌ/ but /æ/ cat

TURKISH SOUNDS
The Turkish alphabet contains 29 letters; eight of them are vowels and the rest are consonants. Unlike
English, Turkish is a language that’s read as it’s written so there are no additional sounds. In the charts
below, you can find the sounds (written in the international phonetic alphabet) next to the examples.
The represented sounds in the words are in bold.

a. Consonants

SOUNDS EXAMPLES
/p/ pul
/b/ bul
/t/ tel
/d/ del
/k/ kar
/g/ gam
/m/ mal
/n/ nal
/f/ far
/s/ sar
/ɣ/ yağmur
SOUNDS EXAMPLES
/z/ zar
/ʃ/ şey
/ʒ/ jöle
/h/ her
/tʃ/ çam
/dʒ/ cam
/ʋ/ var
/l/ lale
/j/ yeşil
/ɾ/ rey
 b. Vowels

SOUNDS EXAMPLES SOUNDS EXAMPLES

/i/ kil /e/ kel
/y/ kül /œ/ göl
/ɯ/ kıl /o/ kol
/u/ kul /a/ kal

EXAMINING ENGLISH AND TURKISH WITH ARTICULATORY PHONETICS

English and Turkish have some common sounds, but they also have different sounds too. This is the
reason two separate charts were prepared. Firstly, the consonants in English and Turkish will be
examined. Below you can find the consonant charts prepared for the both languages.

ENGLISH CONSONANTS
Place of Bilabial Labiodental Interdenta Alveolar Palatal Alveo- Velar Glottal Labiovelar
Manner articulation l palatal
of articulation V- V+ V- V+ V- V+ V- V+ V- V+ V- V+ V- V+ V- V+
V- V+
Stop /p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/ /g/

Nasal /m/ /n/ /ŋ/

Fricative /f/ /v/ /θ/ /ð/ /s/ /z/ /ʃ/ /ʒ/ /h/

Affricative /tʃ/ /dʒ/

lateral /l/
Approximant
central /ɹ/ /j/ /w/
 Place of Bilabial Labiodental Alveolar Palatal Alveo- Velar Glottal
Manner articulation palatal
of articulation V- V+ V- V+ V- V+ V- V+ V- V+ V- V+ V- V+
Stop /p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/ /g/

Nasal /m/ /n/

Fricative /f/ /s/ /z/ /ʃ/ /ʒ/ /ɣ/ /h/

Affricative /tʃ/ /dʒ/

lateral /ʋ/ /l/
Approximant
central /j/
Tap/Flap /ɾ/

TURKISH CONSONANTS

As you can see in the charts above, the sounds of these languages are quite similar in the manner of
both place and manner of articulation, also in the manner of voicing too. The most significant difference
between them is that Turkish has no sound in the interdental place of articulation and the labiovelar
place of articulation while English has two in interdental and one in labiovelar. The second difference is
that the “v” letter is produced differently in these languages. In English, it’s a labiodental and a fricative
sound. Whereas in Turkish, it’s again a labiodental but also a lateral approximant sound. That’s why it is
specified with different symbols. Similarly, that is the case with the ”r” letter. In English, it’s an alveolar
and a central approximant sound. But in Turkish, it’s again an alveolar but a tap/flap sound. This means
that in Turkish the “r” letter is pronounced different than in English. Additionally, there are some sounds
that are unique to one of these languages. For example, the sounds /θ/,/ð/ and /w/ have no response in
Turkish. Whereas, the sound /ɣ/ has no response in English.

Secondly, the vowels in English and Turkish will be examined. Below you can find the vowel charts
prepared for the both languages.

ENGLISH VOWELS
Position of Front Central Back
Height the tongue

of the tongue Unrounded Rounded Unrounded Unrounded Rounded

Rounded
 Tense /i/ /u/

High

Lax /ı/ /ʊ/

Tense /e/ /ʌ/ /o/

Mid

Lax /ɛ/ /ə/

Tense /a/ /ɔ/

Low

Lax /æ/

TURKISH VOWELS
Position of Front Back
Height the tongue

of the tongue Unrounded Rounded Unrounded Rounded

High /i/ /y/ /ɯ/ /u/

Mid /e/ /œ/ /o/

Low /a/

(in some sources, the vowels are divided into 2 categories called “open” and “close”)
 As you can see in the charts above, the vowels of both languages show resemblance too. The most
significant difference is that there is not a single sound in Turkish that’s produced with the tongue being
in central. All of the vowels in Turkish are produced with the tongue being either in front or in back. Also,
there are 12 vowels in English but 8 in Turkish (Again, this is the result of English being a language that
the pronunciation of the letters differs according to the combination of them). However, just five of
them are mutual but not exactly the same (see the sound “a” in both charts, they are in different places).
As a result, the sounds like /ı/, /ɛ/, /æ/, /ʌ/, /ə/, /ʊ/ and /ɔ/ have no response in Turkish. In addition, the
sounds like /y/, /œ/ and /ɯ/ have no response in English.

In conclusion, English and Turkish are quite similar (regarding the sounds) and as a result, this
makes teaching English as a second language to a student that’s mother tongue is Turkish easier.
Because while teaching English, we, as teachers, can relate it to Turkish so that the students can grasp it
easier. However, there are some significant differences that the teachers should pay special attention to
while teaching pronunciation. For example, as I mentioned above, there are some sounds that are
mutual in both languages but produced differently. While teaching these sounds, we should make sure
the students fully understand the difference or it could be a problem in the future. Thanks to this study,
we can give on the point examples, explain them, answer the questions about it and determine the
students understand the topic thoroughly. Additionally, a teacher that mastered the sounds of these
languages will always expose the students to the correct information. As it’s known, the correct input is
the key to learning. Furthermore, while teaching the sounds that the students are not familiar with, the
teacher could show and tell about the place and the manner of articulation of this specific sounds and
this helps the teacher to teach these new sounds correctly. To conclude, learning about the sounds can
give the teacher a lot of advantages so it is truly important to learn for a teacher.

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Varol, M. (2012). The Influence of Turkish Sound System on English Pronunciation (Unpublished master's
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Ünal, D. (2018). Speech Sounds of Turkish And English: Comparison and Contrast (Unpublished master's
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