Morphology of Tatar language

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Phonology

Vowel harmony

See Vowel harmony and Wikipedia
Backness harmony

There are two classes of vowels in Tatar — front and back. Backness harmony states that words may not contain both front and back vowels.

Rounding harmony

Rounding harmony isn't represented in writing and is therefore not discussed here.

Exceptions

Loanwords
  • икътисад-ы-на, сәркатиб-е-нә
    • suffix harmonizes with the last syllable
  • табигать-кә, җәмгыять-кә, секретар(ь)-енә, табигат(ь)-е
    • -ь denotes that -а- and -я- are pronunced as [ә] and [jә] respectively (at least similar to them)
    • -ь is deleted before suffixes starting with a vowel
Letters 'е' 'ю' 'я'
  • ел+ы but егет+кә, гаеп+ле
    • having 'е' in stem is not enough to decide which variant of suffix (back-vowel or front-vowel) to choose[1]

Twol rules needed for this

  • "Soft sign deletion before suffix starting with a vowel"
    • ь:0 <=> _ %>: :Vowel ;

Number

{L}{A}р           Plural
Rules surface forms of -/{L}{A}р/ Examples Gloss
Ends with nasal consonants (м, н, ң) -нар/-нәр урам+нар, дошман+нар,таң+нар streets,enemies,dawns
Ends with anything else -лар/-ләр бала+лар,кыз+лар,китап+лар,юләр+ләр children,girls,books,fools

Twol rules needed for this

  • "Plural alternation after nasal"
    • %{L%}:н <=> :NasalCns %>: _ %{A%}: р ;

Possessives

() = deleted after vowel, [] = deleted after consonant, {} = archivowel/consonant

({I})м,                  1sg
({I})ң,                  2sg
[с]{I},                  3sg 
({I})б{I}з,              1pl
({I})г{I}з,              2pl
[с]{I} or {L}{A}р{I}     3pl

Note: -лары/-ләре, -нары/-нәре can have several meanings:

  • Әниләре өйдә юк. - Their mother is not at home.
  • Аның малайлары да үзенә охшаган. - His sons are just like him. (In this case {L}{A}р{I} is a combination of the plural suffix {L}{A}р and the 3 person singular possessive suffix [с]{I})
  • аларның сүзләре - their words

1st Person Possessives

Singular/Plural Suffix Example Gloss
Singular -ым becomes -м if ends with vowel ат+ым,бала+м my horse, my son
Plural -ыбыз becomes -быз if ends with vowel ат+ыбыз,бала+быз our horse, our son

2nd Person Possessive

Singular/Plural Suffix Example Gloss
Singular -ың becomes -ң if ends with vowel ат+ың,бала+ң your horse, your son
Plural -ыгыз becomes -гыз if ends with vowel ат+ыгыз,бала+гыз your horse,your son

3rd Person Possessive

Singular/Plural Suffix Example Gloss
-- -ы becomes -сы when following vowel[2] ат+ы,бала+сы his horse, his son

General Possessive

Singular/Plural Suffix Example Gloss
-- -ныкы/-неке бала+ныкы,дәүләтнеке child's,state's, (as their own NPs)

Сases

Case Name Suffixes
absolute ---
genitive -ның/-нең
dative -га/-гә, -ка/-кә
definite-accusative -ны/-не
ablative -дан/-дән, -тан/-тән, -нан/-нән
locative -да/-дә, -та/-тә

Notes

  1. It seems that in one-syllable words beginning with 'е' it always stands for [йы]. In two-or-more-syllable words decisive are the next to the end vowel. E.g. ел-ы ("his/its year") and егыл-ган ("falled down"), егет-кә ("to the guy"). That means that 'е' should be treated as a front vowel (which is the case) with an exception when it is in initial position in a one syllable word. The same is true for 'ю' and 'я' with vice versa statement about the default backness
  2. Or -сы becomes -ы when following consonant, in other words

See also