Article

Name: Palatality and palatalization in diverse languages of Siberia (according to MRI data)

Authors: Ksenia V. Shindrova

Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

In the section Linguistics

Abstract:

The paper considers the phonetic characteristics of nasal palatalized and non-palatalized sounds of the German Mennonite language (self-name Plautdietsch) and the Altai language and nasal forelingual and oral backlingual sounds of the Russian language. Given the strong influence of Russian on Altai and Plautdietsch, the objective is to determine if Russian palatalization, which structures the whole consonant system and is a constitutive-differential feature, influences the other languages under study. Magnetic resonance imaging was used to identify the articulation features and reveal the constitutive differential parameters characteristic of the phonetic subsystem of palatalized phonemes. Nineteen tomograms with target sounds were described and analyzed following the methodology of the V. M. Nadelyaev Laboratory of Experimental Phonetic Researches of the Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The MRI images demonstrate that the articulation of palatalized sounds involves the elevation of the middle and back parts of the tongue towards the boundary between the hard and soft palate. The production of palatalized sounds in the Russian language is found to be characterized by the advancement of the tongue body to the front part of the oral cavity. The study findings indicate that palatalization may not always produce an acoustic effect of softness. This research contributes to the understanding of the articulatory mechanisms and phonetic features of palatalized sounds in the languages under consideration, highlighting the interplay between language contact and phonetic adaptation.

Keywords: phonetics, Altai language, Mennonite language, Plautdietsch, consonantism, palatality, palatalization, MRI

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