Observations on affricates in Livonian

• Published in: Eesti ja soome-ugri keeleteaduse ajakiri. Journal of Estonian and Finno-Ugric Linguistics
• Main Author: Tuuli Tuisk
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Estonian
• Published: University of Tartu Press 2018
• Subjects: phonology; phonetics; consonants; affricates; Finnic languages; Livonian; Philology. Linguistics; P1-1091; Finnic. Baltic-Finnic; PH91-98.5; Tuuli; karelian; votic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.12697/jeful.2018.9.2.09; https://doaj.org/article/284e2e06b65c4021ae8453ceccd40507

The aim of the current article is to observe affricates in Livonian. Studies on the Finnic languages have described affricates in South Estonian, Veps, Votic, and Karelian, while Livonian affricates are poorly studied. The phonetic data used in this article show that the voiceless alveolar affricate /ts/ [͡ts], voiceless palatal alveolar affricate / tš/ [͡tʃ], and their voiced counterparts /dz/ [d͡ z] and /dž/ [d͡ ʒ] are found in the Livonian phonological system. Also, the occurrence of a palatalised /ḑš/ [d͡ jʃ] was detected. The words containing affricates are primarily Latvian loanwords as well as descriptive and onomatopoeic words. There are some acoustic characteristics that differentiate Livonian affricates from consonant clusters. For instance, the duration of affricates is quite short, being sometimes even shorter than that of single fricatives. The transition from the stop to the following fricative in Livonian affricates is not as sharp as in the case of similar consonant clusters. Also, the existence of the broken tone or stød must not be ignored in Livonian, as it can cause changes in the location of the syllable boundary. Kokkuvõte. Tuuli Tuisk: Tähelepanekuid liivi keele afrikaatide kohta. Artikli eesmärk on kirjeldada liivi keele afrikaate. Lääne meresoome keeltest on afrikaate kirjeldatud lõunaeesti, vepsa, vadja ja karjala keeles, liivi keele afrikaadid on aga suures osas seni kirjeldamata. Artiklis kasutatud foneetiline ainestik näitab, et liivi keele fonoloogilises süsteemis on olemas helitu alveolaarne afrikaat /ts/ [͡ts], helitu palataalalveolaarne /tš/ [͡tʃ] ja nende helilised vasted /dz/ [d͡ z] ja /dž/ [d͡ ʒ]. Lisaks on täheldatud palataliseeritud afrikaati /ḑš/ [d͡ jʃ]. Afrikaate sisaldavad sõnad on eeskätt läti keele laensõnad, deskriptiivsed ja onomatopoeetilised sõnad. Esinevad mõned iseloomulikud akustilised tunnused, mis eristavad liivi keele afrikaate konsonantühenditest. Näiteks on afrikaadi kestus üsna lühike, olles mõnikord lühem üksikust frikatiivist. Üleminek sulult ...