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Phonetic Realisation and Phonemic Categorisation of the Final Reduced Corner Vowels in the Finnic Languages of Ingria

  • Natalia Kuznetsova and Vasilisa Verkhodanova
Published/Copyright: May 26, 2019

Abstract

Individual variability in sound change was explored at three stages of final vowel reduction and loss in the endangered Finnic varieties of Ingria (subdialects of Ingrian, Votic and Ingrian Finnish). The correlation between the realisation of reduced vowels and their phonemic categorisation by speakers was studied. The correlated results showed that if V was pronounced >70%, its starting loss was not yet perceived, apart from certain frequent elements, but after >70% loss, V was not perceived any more. A split of 50/50 between V and loss in production correlated with the same split in categorisation. At the beginning of a sound change, production is, therefore, more innovative, but after reanalysis, categorisation becomes more innovative and leads the change. The vowel a was the most innovative in terms of loss, u/o were the most conservative, and i was in the middle, while consonantal palatalisation was more salient than labialisation. These differences are based on acoustics, articulation and perception.


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*Natalia Kuznetsova, Dipartimento di Lingue e Letterature straniere e Culture moderne, Universita degli Studi di Torino, via Giuseppe Verdi, 10, IT–10124 Turin (Italy), E-Mail nkuzn@yandex.ru

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  1. 1

    Hereafter, the original etymological vowel qualities, whose reflexes are studied in the experiments, are marked with an asterisk.

Received: 2017-03-28
Accepted: 2018-10-29
Published Online: 2019-05-26
Published in Print: 2019-05-01

© 2019 S. Karger AG, Basel

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