Publ. z VIII Ogólnopolskiej Konferencji Turkologicznej (Kraków, 27-28 kwietnia 2017).

Long vowels in Turkish are mainly found in loanwords. Apart from the primary long vowels in borrowings, there are secondary long vowels also. And “soft g” is the one of the most important sources of secondary long vowels in modern Turkish. Soft g /ğ/ which can be defined with a general terminology as “voiced velar approximant”, is modified according to its position in the syllable, and deletion of it causes compensatory lengthening. But despite those phonological characteristics, there’s a confusion about existence of long vowels in modern Turkish. The theory is primary long vowels did exist in Proto Turkic which partly preserved in some of the modern Turkic languages; and most of them shortened and can be traced through specific phonological changes. Traditional approach of modern Turkish grammar studies is to ignore that there were long vowels in loanwords and there were secondary long vowels caused by deletion in modern Turkish. The statement, claiming there was no long vowel in modern Turkish, can be read especially in text books dedicated to teaching Turkish as a foreign language. Consequently one can not find notes about pronunciation of these phonemes in Turkish text books. There isn’t a methodology developed aiming to teach Turkish pronunciation. The only way of acquiring Turkish pronunciation for both native and foreigner learners is listening native Turkish speakers.