Remarks on the phonetic value of the letters ‹y› and ‹ü› in Franciscus Meninski’s Ottoman Turkish Thesaurus (1680)
Remarks on the phonetic value of the letters ‹y› and ‹ü› in Franciscus Meninski’s Ottoman Turkish Thesaurus (1680)

Summary/Abstract: Franciscus Meninski generally used the letter ‹y› as a symbol for today’s Turkish ı. However, this letter also appears in front vocalic words which contradicts the palato-velar aspect of Turkish vowel harmony. Mertol Tulum has recently attempted to show that the phonetic value of ‹y› in front vocalic words was a central, high vowel placed between the Turkish i and ı (one that would probably be rendered [ɨ] in the IPA; however, since this letter is barely visible in print, especially in the footnotes, I have decided to replace it with its Fenno-Ugristic equivalent [i] here). The present author, thus, examines Tulum’s line of reasoning and dicusses the possibility of reinterpreting the functions fulfilled by ‹y› and ‹ü› in Meninski’s work.

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