Reconstructing phonetics behind the graphic system of Evenki texts from the Rychkov archive

• Published in: Rhema
• Main Authors: A.V. Arkhipov, С.L. Däbritz
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Russian
• Published: Moscow Pedagogical State University, Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education 2021
• Subjects: evenki language; graphic system; phonetics; velar; laryngeal; sibilants; palatalization; handwritten text recognition; Philology. Linguistics; P1-1091; Evenki
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.31862/2500-2953-2021-2-46-64; https://doaj.org/article/7e43cf3f2048468b809ebbac43e655a3

This paper discusses the graphic system of manuscripts by Konstantin Rychkov (ca. 1910) containing texts in several dialects of Evenki (Tungusic) with Russian translation. The letters г and һ arguably denote voiced velars or post-velars, stops and fricatives alike. The former is only used before front vowels, the latter otherwise. The letter һ is also found quite often in place of the velar nasal. Palatalization is denoted by three means: a dedicated diacritic after the consonant, an umlaut on the vowel, or the vowel і/ы alternation. Russian letters for hissing sibilants were substituted with Latin ones by Rychkov, which might reflect a different (“lisping”) pronounciation. A special diacritic under sibilants and б probably indicates semi-voicing.