Similar to many Northeast Caucasian languages, Tsakhur is known for its complex phonology and a large number of vowel phonemes (including 7 simple, 5 pharyngealized and 3 umlauted vowels). Its first in-depth phonological description was provided by Nikolai Trubetzkoy in 1931.
Consonants[]
The consonant inventory, according to Shulze's study of the language, of Tsakhur is shown below. Forms are phonemic unless placed in square brackets, in which case they are suspected to be phonemes but currently with incomplete evidence for this.[1] The inventory shows some asymmetries, but exhibits series of palatalized, labialized, and pharyngealized phonemes.
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Laryngeal | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | pal. | lab. | plain | pal. | lab. | plain | lab. | plain | pal. | lab. | plain | lab. | phar. | plain | lab. | phar. | |||
| Nasal | m | n | [nʲ] | ||||||||||||||||
| Plosive / Affricate |
voiceless | p | t | [tʲ] | tʷ | ts | [tsʲ] | [tsʷ] | tʃ | tʃʷ | k | kʲ | [kʷ] | q | qʷ | qˤ | |||
| ejective | pʼ | tʼ | [tʲʼ] | [tʷʼ] | tsʼ | [tsʲʼ] | [tsʷʼ] | tʃʼ | tʃʼʷ | kʼ | [kʲʼ] | [kʷʼ] | qʼ | qʷʼ | qˤʼ | ʔ | ʕʼ1 | ||
| geminate | pː | tː | tsː | [tʃːʼ] | [tʃːʷ] | kː | [kːʲ] | qː | [qːʷ] | [qːˤ] | |||||||||
| voiced | b | d | dʲ | dz | dʒ | [dʒʷ] | g | gʲ | gʷ | ɢ | [ɢʷ] | ɢˤ | |||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | [sʲ] | ʃ | [ʃʷ] | x | xʲ | xʷ | χ | χʷ | χˤ | h | [hʷ] | hˤ | ||||
| geminate | sː | [sːʲ] | ʃː | [ʃːʷ] | xː | [xːʲ] | [xːʷ] | χː | [χːʷ] | [χːˤ] | |||||||||
| voiced | w1 | z | [zʲ] | [zʷ] | ɣ | ʁ | [ʁʷ] | ʁˤ | |||||||||||
| Approximant | l | lʲ | r | j | |||||||||||||||
References[]
- ↑ Wolfgang Schulze, Tsakhur (Lincom Europa, München, 1997)