Evolution of the Non-Initial Vocalic Length Contrast across the Finnic Varieties of Ingria and Adjacent Areas

Abstract

The paper traces the evolutionary path of the non-initial vocalic length contrast in the Finnic varieties of Ingria and adjacent areas, from long vs. short vowels to short vs. no vowels. On the material from living varieties of the Ingrian, Votic, Finnish and Estonian languages, this sound change can be modeled very precisely, with statistical phonetic data analyzed for each stage of it. Among other things, the changes in various types of ratios between long and short vowels are described in more innovative varieties, as compared to Standard Finnish, which represents the most conservative stage. A special section describes a phonetic study on the reflexes of short vowels in Southern Lower Luga Ingrian, as well as in a mixed Siberian Ingrian/Finnish dialect. In these two varieties, vowel reduction, devoicing and elision occur at the most advanced level before the complete vowel loss. Also, a correlated study on phonemic categorization of these vowels by the native speakers is discussed. Both experiments indicate that in Southern Lower Luga Ingrian short vowel reflexes still retain the vocalic phonemic status, while in Siberian Ingrian/Finnish they should already be treated as consonantal features of palalization and labialiazation.

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

“…At stage 3 (S), with vowel loss in > 70% of the cases, only one category prototype [-SEGMENT] prevailed. These results clarify the findings by Kuznetsova (2016), where less phonetic reduction was expected for Kurkola Ingrian Finnish and more for Central Lower Luga Ingrian, respectively.…”

“…It is remarkable that in IF and V, the loss in frequent words concerned only the vowel *i. In Soikkola Ingrian, the other still existing Ingrian dialect which is about as archaic as IF from the point of view of reduction (Kuznetsova, 2016), the same type of *i-loss in frequent words became lexicalised. For example, the following words in our questionnaire do not have the final *i in Soikkola Ingrian: pēn/pīn "small," ūs "new," sūr "big," laps "child" and nōr/nūr "young."…”

“…Due to the endangered state of the varieties, it proved in some cases impossible to find words ending in the required combinations of u and a consonant that would be familiar to the speakers. Second, in the process of vowel reduction and loss in these varieties, the mid vowels o, ö and e are raised to u, ü and i (Mägiste, 1925, p. 80;Kuznetsova, 2012aKuznetsova, , 2012bKuznetsova, , 2016; see, e.g., maito/maitu "milk," pudro/pudru "porridge" and viero/vieru "wheel" in Appendix 1). Third, the loss of both o and u results in consonantal labialisation; thus, from this point of view, they are functionally similar.…”

“…This is a limitation of our study, precipitated by the limited availability of fluent speakers able to participate in such experiments, as individual speakers even of the same language may display different reduction behaviour (Hanique et al, 2015). General reduction patterns in Lower Luga and adjacent areas had, however, been established prior to this experiment by Kuznetsova (2009Kuznetsova ( , 2012aKuznetsova ( , 2016 on the basis of existing published sources as well as audio data on several dozens of speakers. It was observed that the degree of reduction increases from the north to the south of the Lower Luga area towards the Estonian language, which has been the most innovative in this respect and has completely lost reduced vowels.…”

“…59-60). Reduction in non-initial long vowels is outside the scope of this study; for a general account see Kuznetsova (2016).…”