The Estonian subdialect Kihnu, Latvian and Kuronian Livonian share a type of interrogative containing morphemes whose primary function is to mark 3rd person imperatives. This construction is not attested in other Estonian dialects or in Standard Estonian, other than in some petrified idioms. In Kihnu and Latvian, the question type is used for deliberative questions. This interrogative type may have originally been used as a translation of German Konjunktiv in embedded interrogatives, but by the desubordination process, it has spread to main clauses as well. This the most probable scenario for Estonian (Kihnu subdialect). Contacts between Kihnu and Livonian and Latvian have probably reinforced this interrogative type in terms of structural relevance and usage frequency.

THE ACOUSTIC CHARACTERISTICS OF MONOPHTHONGS AND DIPHTHONGS IN THE KIHNU VARIETY OF ESTONIANA Ab bs st tr ra ac ct t. . This paper presents the first acoustic study of monophthongs and diphthongs in the Kihnu variety of Estonian. The focus is on six diphthongs which have arisen after the diphthongization of long open and mid vowels. The comparison of their components with monophthongs revealed that the target values of the diphthongs are close to the corresponding monophthongs. There was some variation due to coarticulatory influences between the diphthong components. It was shown that the duration of both target vowels in the diphthong is longer in the third quantity than in the second quantity. The analysis also revealed that there is an acoustic basis for postulating the existence of two triphthongs in Kihnu. Formant trajectory length proved to be a useful measure for comparing monophthongs, diphthongs and triphthongs.

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