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

• Published in: Rhema
• Main Authors: Chris Lasse Däbritz, Alexandre Arkhipov
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2021
• Subjects: Evenki
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.31862/2500-2953-2021-2-46-64

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.