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

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 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.