Field notes from a phonetician on Tundra Yukaghir orthography

Odé, Cecilia

doi:10.1075/z.189.18ode

In:Above and Beyond the Segments: Experimental linguistics and phonetics
Edited by Johanneke Caspers, Yiya Chen, Willemijn Heeren, Jos Pacilly, Niels O. Schiller and Ellen van Zanten
[Not in series 189] 2014
► pp. 218–229

Get fulltext from our e-platform

Download Book PDF

Field notes from a phonetician on Tundra Yukaghir orthography

Cecilia Odé

Published online: 10 December 2014

https://doi.org/10.1075/z.189.18ode

The present article sketches problems with respect to the orthography of the highly endangered isolated Paleo-Siberian language Tundra Yukaghir, spoken in the far northeast of the Republic of Sacha, Russian Federation. Though an official orthography exists, no consensus on the orthography exists among native speakers of the language. As a result, confusion occurs in the spelling, especially of vowel phoneme /ö/ and phonemic long vs. short vowels. These vowels are not well described and not always pronounced and perceived correctly. Two experiments are discussed describing the nature of vowel /ö/ and vowel length. Finally, reasons for the confusing orthography, also in language teaching, are presented.

References (17)

References

Bolinger, D. (1986). Intonation and its parts. London: Edward Arnold.

Kreinovich, E. (1958). Iukagirskii iazyk [The Yukaghir language]. Moscow-Leningrad: Academy of Sciences USSR.

. (1968). Iukagirskii iazyk [The Yukaghir language]. In V.V. Vinogradov (Ed.), Iazyki narodov SSSR (pp. 435–452), Tom V. Leningrad: Nauka.

. (1982). Issledovaniia i materialy po iukagirskomu iazyku [Studies and materials in the Yukaghir language]. Leningrad: Nauka.

Kurilov, G.N. (1987). Pravila orfografii iukagirskogo iazyka [ Rules for Tundra Yukaghir orthography ]. Yakutsk.

. (2001). Iukagirsko-russkii slovar’ [Yukaghir-Russian dictionary]. Novosibirsk: Nauka.

. (2006). Sovremennyi iukagirskii iazyk [The contemporary Yukaghir language]. Yakutsk: Ofset.

Ladefoged, P., & Maddieson, I. (1996). The sounds of the world’s languages. Oxford: Blackwell.

Maslova, E. (2001). Yukaghir texts. Tunguso-Siberica 7. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.

. (2003). Tundra Yukaghir. Languages of the World/Materials 372. München: Lincom Europa.

Nikolaeva, I. (2006). A historical dictionary of Yukaghir. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.  

. (2010). Yukaghir. Unpublished manuscript.

Nikolaeva, I.A., & Chelimsky, E.A. (1997). Iukagirskii iazyk [The Yukaghir language]. Iazyki mira. Paleo-aziatskie iazyki, 155–168. Moscow: Indrik.

Odé, C. (2012). A v segmentnoi fonetike tozhe chto-to est [Segmental phonetics also has its charms]. Invited paper (in English with an introduction in Russian) in L.A. Verbitskaia, & N.K. Ivanova (Eds.), Chelovek govoriashchii. Issledovaniia XXI veka, K 80-letiiu so dnia rozhdeniia Lii Vasil’evny Bondarko (pp. 34–43). Ivanovo: Ivanovskii gosudarstvennyi khimiko-tekhnologicheskii universitet.

Schmalz, M. (2012). Towards a full description of the focus system in Tundra Yukaghir. Linguistic Discovery, 10(2), 53–108.

Turkin, I.O. (1984). Artikuliatsionnye kharakteristiki iukagirskikh glasnykh (tundrennyi dialekt) [Articulatory characteristics of Yukaghir vowels (tundra dialect)]. Fonetika iazykov Sibiri, 79–96. Novosibirsk: Academy of Sciences USSR.

. (1986). Inventar’ glasnykh fonem v iukagirskom iazyke (tundrennyi dialekt) [An inventory of vowel phonemes in the Yukaghir language (tundra dialect)]. In V.M. Nadeliaev (Ed.), Fonetika iazykov Sibiri i sopredel’nykh regionov (pp. 66–69). Novosibirsk: Nauka.