Chukchi phonology

This article discusses the phonology of the Chukchi language. The Chukchi language, also known as Chukot or Luorawetlan, is a language spoken by around 5 thousand people in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. The endonym of the Chukchi language is Ԓыгъоравэтԓьэн йиԓыйиԓ (Lyg'"orawetl'en Jilyjil), pronounced as [ɬəɣˀorawetɬˀɛn jiɬəjiɬ]. Chukchi is in the Chukotko-Kamchatkan family, and thus is closely related to Koryak, Kerek, Alyutor, and more distantly related to Itelmen, Southern Kamchadal, and Eastern Kamchadal.

Vowels
Source:

Generally, Chukchi is noted to have 5 or 6 distinct vowels, with /e1/ and /e2/ being identical in pronunciation but behaving differently in the language. A similar occurrence exists in Yup'ik Eskimo. Chukchi phonotactics are (C)V(C). Phonetic notes:


 * /e1/ and /e2/ are identical in pronunciation, but behave differently in vowel harmony.
 * Word finally /e1/ and /a/ reduce to a schwa, while other vowels may get dropped.

Vowel Harmony
Chukchi is notable for its vowel harmony based on vowel height, with /i/, /u/, and /e1/ belonging to the recessive group and /e₂/, /o/, and /a/ belonging to the dominant group. The three-vowel pairs alternate with each other and cannot cooccur within a word.

Consonants
Chukchi has 13 consonants. The language lacks voiced stops, which are only found in loanwords.


 * [ɸ, x, ɻ̊, j̊] are heard as allophones of /β, ɣ, ɻ, j/ after voiceless stops.
 * /ɻ/ is mostly heard as an alveolar trill [r], when in between vowels.
 * /s/ is phonetically [s~t͡ʃ] in free variation.
 * /t͡ʃ/ becomes [s] before /q/.
 * /s/, /t͡ʃ/ and /ɻ/ have different distributions between men's and women's dialects.

There is also a supersegmental glottalisation realised as a glottal stop preceding a vowel. It is not treated as a consonant as a result of phonotactics and reduplication patterns.