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THE MORPHOLOGICAL FUNCTION OF AFFIXES IN UZBEK AND
TURKISH LANGUAGES
Amirova Sojida Sulton kizi
is an English teacher at the Abu Ali ibn Sino Specialized School located in
Olmazor district, Tashkent city. She has completed her Master of Arts in
Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (MA TESOL) with an emphasis
in International Education at Webster University in Tashkent, as well as a
Certificate in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL).
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16360187
Abstract
This article provides a comparative morphological analysis of affixes in the
Uzbek and Turkish languages, focusing on their grammatical, derivational, and
syntactic functions. As members of the Turkic language family, both Uzbek and
Turkish exhibit agglutinative morphological structures, wherein affixes serve as
the primary means of expressing grammatical relationships and word formation.
The study explores similarities and differences in affix usage, productivity, and
semantic transparency. It also examines how affixes reflect historical language
development and contemporary linguistic evolution. The research contributes to
broader understanding of Turkic linguistics and morphological typology through
detailed analysis of affixation mechanisms in both languages.
Keywords
affixation, Uzbek language, Turkish language, morphology, agglutinative
structure, grammatical function, derivational affixes, typology
Affixation lies at the heart of Turkic morphological structure, functioning as
the core mechanism for both grammatical inflection and word derivation. In
Uzbek and Turkish, two closely related yet distinct members of the Turkic
family, affixes play an essential role in forming verbs, nouns, adjectives, and
adverbs. Their agglutinative nature allows for complex syntactic constructions
through the linear addition of multiple affixes to a single root, each carrying
distinct grammatical or lexical meaning. However, despite genetic proximity and
typological alignment, Uzbek and Turkish affix systems demonstrate both
parallelisms and divergences shaped by phonological, historical, and
sociolinguistic factors.
The Uzbek language, part of the southeastern (Karluk) branch of Turkic
languages, and Turkish, belonging to the southwestern (Oghuz) branch, both
exhibit agglutination, yet their affix inventories and morphological patterns
reflect different developmental paths. In both languages, affixes may be
classified into
inflectional
and
derivational
categories. Inflectional affixes in
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Uzbek and Turkish are used to indicate case, person, number, tense, aspect,
mood, and voice, while derivational affixes generate new lexical items or alter
grammatical categories.
In terms of
case marking
, both languages employ suffixes rather than
prepositions. For example, the Uzbek
-ni
(accusative) and Turkish
-i/-ı/-u/-ü
serve similar syntactic roles:
Uzbek:
kitobni o‘qidim
(I read the book)
Turkish:
kitabı okudum
(I read the book)
These suffixes follow vowel harmony rules—more extensively in Turkish—
demonstrating one of the core morphological strategies common to both
languages. Turkish maintains strict vowel harmony in affixation, where suffix
vowels adjust according to front/back and rounded/unrounded distinctions.
Uzbek, on the other hand, has partially lost vowel harmony, especially in its
standard literary form influenced by Persian and Russian, though traces remain
in dialectal usage.
In
personal agreement markers
, both languages use person-number
suffixes attached to verbs. Compare:
Uzbek:
Men boraman
(I will go) →
-man
(1st person singular)
Turkish:
Ben gideceğim
(I will go) →
-ceğim
or
-acağım
(future + 1st
person singular)
The Turkish future tense marker
-ecek/-acak
combines with the personal
suffix, whereas Uzbek uses a synthetic form with root modifications and
personal endings. The morphological layering in Turkish tends to be more
transparent and regular, whereas Uzbek exhibits more syncretism and
allomorphic variation, especially in colloquial speech.
In
voice affixation
, the passive, causative, and reciprocal affixes
demonstrate high productivity in both languages. The causative suffixes
-tir/-dir
in Uzbek and
-tir/-dir/-t/-d
in Turkish serve nearly identical functions:
Uzbek:
o‘qimoq
(to read) →
o‘qitmoq
(to make/read)
Turkish:
okumak
→
okutmak
However, morphophonemic changes in Turkish are more rule-governed
due to its extensive vowel and consonant harmony systems. Additionally,
Turkish allows for recursive affixation more systematically, where causative-
passive combinations can appear in nested structures, such as:
okutulmak
(to be made to be read)
Another significant area of comparison is
derivational affixation
, where
both languages employ a rich set of suffixes to form new words from base stems.
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For example, nominalizers like
-chi
in Uzbek and
-ci/-cı
in Turkish produce agent
nouns:
Uzbek:
o‘qituvchi
(teacher)
Turkish:
öğretici
(instructor)
While both affixes function similarly, Uzbek often uses Persian-derived
suffixes such as
-dor
,
-noma
, or
-goh
(e.g.,
kitobxona
– library), which have no
direct equivalents in Turkish. Turkish, in contrast, integrates more productive
use of native suffixes like
-lik/-lık
,
-siz
, and
-li
, maintaining higher morphological
regularity and transparency.
The phenomenon of
suffix stacking
, a hallmark of agglutinative typology, is
prominent in both languages. Words like
ko‘rsatmayapman
(Uzbek, “I am not
showing”) and
göstermiyorum
(Turkish, same meaning) consist of multiple
suffixes strung in strict morphological order: root + negation + progressive
aspect + personal marker. This recursive structure showcases how affixes
encode extensive grammatical information compactly, a feature shared with
other Turkic languages such as Kazakh or Kyrgyz.
Nevertheless, Uzbek and Turkish differ in their interaction with loanwords
and the integration of non-Turkic morphological elements. Uzbek, due to
historical Persian and Russian influence, exhibits mixed morphological
constructions. For instance, loan verbs like
telefon qilmoq
(to telephone)
maintain hybrid constructions, where a noun (of foreign origin) is combined
with a native verb. Turkish, on the other hand, tends to naturalize loanwords
more thoroughly into its derivational system, often coining fully Turkic
alternatives to foreign terms.
Moreover, recent reforms in Turkey under Atatürk led to a conscious
purification of the Turkish lexicon, including efforts to revive Turkic affixation
over Arabic and Persian morphology. Uzbek did not undergo such systemic
purism, resulting in a greater degree of morphological hybridity, especially in
legal, academic, and technical domains.
From a
diachronic perspective
, the divergence in affix behavior reflects
not only linguistic evolution but also cultural and political trajectories. Turkish
morphology has become more regularized and codified due to state-driven
reforms and prescriptive grammars, whereas Uzbek exhibits greater dialectal
variation and influence from bilingual communities. This divergence also
impacts language learning, language technology development, and the creation
of NLP tools.
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In sum, affixes in both Uzbek and Turkish demonstrate core similarities
rooted in their common Turkic heritage: suffixation dominance, absence of
prefixes, productive voice and aspect marking, and rich derivational
possibilities. However, phonological patterns, affix ordering, and the degree of
morphological transparency differ significantly, reflecting unique historical and
sociolinguistic influences. Comparative morphological analysis of affixation in
these languages reveals not only structural commonality but also dynamic
evolution, shaped by internal rules and external contacts.
Such analysis contributes to typological linguistics, computational
morphology, and language pedagogy by deepening our understanding of how
agglutinative systems function and vary. It also highlights the importance of
comparative study within a single language family, demonstrating how shared
ancestry may produce both continuity and divergence in grammatical
expression.
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