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Conlangery #74: Vowel Harmony

Conlangery Podcast

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What's the Difference Between K and Q in Arabic?

Most languages that borrow from Arabic don't have this uvular stop, that's spelled with a Q. What Turkish does is it renders K and Q exactly the same. But oddly enough, if it borrows from a word that ends in an Arabic K, wherever the vowels are, it takes front-bell harmony. If it borrowed a word that ended in a Turkish Q, whatever the vowels were, it took back-bell harmony - even though they both sound the same.

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