New by Natalia Kuznetsova
This chapter introduces theoretical controversies around studies on rare phonetic and phonologica... more This chapter introduces theoretical controversies around studies on rare phonetic and phonological phenomena, and affirms the importance of rarities for the development of phonological theory. We highlight the attempt of our volume to chart a middle ground between two extremes in existing approaches to rarities: radical exoticisation (emphasising the uniqueness of rare patterns to the point of undermining efforts to compare them) and radical normalisation (explaining away rare patterns without accounting for their peculiarity). We favour the de-exoticisation of rare phenomena and attempts to refine existing typologies to better account for them, as this can help to expand and improve phonological theory and typology. The chapter goes on to outline the main themes explored in the volume and to explore how the 17 individual chapters contribute to our better understanding of sound patterns in human language.
Kuznetsova N., Anderson C., Easterday S. (eds.) Rarities in phonetics and phonology: structural, typological, evolutionary, and social dimensions. Berlin: Language Science Press, 3-28 (https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/415), 2024
This chapter introduces theoretical controversies around studies on rare phonetic and phonologica... more This chapter introduces theoretical controversies around studies on rare phonetic and phonological phenomena, and affirms the importance of rarities for the development of phonological theory. We highlight the attempt of our volume to chart a middle ground between two extremes in existing approaches to rarities: radical exoticisation (emphasising the uniqueness of rare patterns to the point of undermining efforts to compare them) and radical normalisation (explaining away rare patterns without accounting for their peculiarity). We favour the de-exoticisation of rare phenomena and attempts to refine existing typologies to better account for them, as this can help to expand and improve phonological theory and typology. The chapter goes on to outline the main themes explored in the volume and to discuss how the 17 individual chapters contribute to our better understanding of sound patterns in human language.
Linguistic Typology, 2025
The paper discusses languages with ternary quantity of vowels and consonants, analysing the evolu... more The paper discusses languages with ternary quantity of vowels and consonants, analysing the evolutionary mechanisms of the rise of ternary quantity and its alignment with lexicalised laryngeal articulations. Six shared evolutionary mechanisms based on vowel coalescence and segment lengthening or shortening are distinguished, and a couple of alternative paths. Tonal stressless languages show a symmetric system where the voice quality contrast is “orthogonal” to both quantity and pitch. Stress languages manifest two types of asymmetric alignment between overlength (Q3) and laryngeal articulations: “synergistic” and “antagonistic”, the latter being more common across language groups. It appears that the synergistic alignment might rather reflect the situation in which the lexicalised laryngeal contrast is more recent and more dependent on the quantity contrast than in case of the antagonistic alignment. Additionally, an outline of an articulatory model which might account for the rise of the observed quantity-laryngeal-pitch templates in languages with ternary quantity is proposed.
Finnic by Natalia Kuznetsova
Agdzhoyan A., Ponomarev G., Pylev V., Autleva (Kagazezheva) Zh., Gorin I., Evsyukov I., Pocheshkhova E., Koshel S., Kuleshov V., Adamov D., and Kuznetsova N. The Finnic peoples of Russia: genetic structure inferred from genome-wide and Y-chromosome data Genes, 15(12), 1610, 2024
Background: Eastern Finnic populations, including Karelians, Veps, Votes, Ingrians, and Ingrian F... more Background: Eastern Finnic populations, including Karelians, Veps, Votes, Ingrians, and Ingrian Finns, are a significant component of the history of Finnic populations, which have developed over ~3 kya. Yet, these groups remain understudied from a genetic point of view. Methods: In this work, we explore the gene pools of Karelians (Northern, Tver, Ludic, and Livvi), Veps, Ingrians, Votes, and Ingrian Finns using Y-chromosome markers (N = 357) and genome-wide autosomes (N = 67) and in comparison with selected Russians populations of the area (N = 763). The data are analyzed using statistical, bioinformatic, and cartographic methods. Results: The autosomal gene pool of Eastern Finnic populations can be divided into two large categories based on the results of the PCA and ADMIXTURE modeling: (a) “Karelia”: Veps, Northern, Ludic, Livvi, and Tver Karelians; (b) “Ingria”: Ingrians, Votes, Ingrian Finns. The Y-chromosomal gene pool of Baltic Finns is more diverse and is composed of four genetic components. The “Northern” component prevails in Northern Karelians and Ingrian Finns, the “Karelian” in Livvi, Ludic, and Tver Karelians, the “Ingrian-Veps” in Ingrians and Veps (a heterogeneous cluster occupying an intermediate position between the “Northern” and the “Karelian” ones), and the “Southern” in Votes. Moreover, our phylogeographic analysis has found that the Y-haplogroup N3a4-Z1927 carriers are frequent among most Eastern Finnic populations, as well as among some Northern Russian and Central Russian populations. Conclusions: The autosomal clustering reflects the major areal groupings of the populations in question, while the Y-chromosomal gene pool correlates with the known history of these groups. The overlap of the four Y-chromosomal patterns may reflect the eastern part of the homeland of the Proto-Finnic gene pool. The carriers of the Y-haplogroup N3a4-Z1927, frequent in the sample, had a common ancestor at ~2.4 kya, but the active spread of N3a4-Z1927 happened only at ~1.7–2 kya, during the “golden” age of the Proto-Finnic culture (the archaeological period of the “typical” Tarand graves). A heterogeneous Y-chromosomal cluster containing Ingrians, Veps, and Northern Russian populations, should be further studied.
Oliver Niebuhr, Malin Svensson Lundmark (eds.). Proceedings of the 13th Nordic Prosody Conference: Applied and Multimodal Prosody Research, Sonderborg, Denmark. Warsaw: Sciendo/de Gruyter, 71-84, 2023
Secondary gemination is a remarkable but little-known phonological process of singleton consonant... more Secondary gemination is a remarkable but little-known phonological process of singleton consonant lengthening into geminates in certain prosodic positions in Finnic languages. Its phonetic premises, typology, and chronology are still understudied. The aim of the paper is twofold. First, it summarises the main facts about secondary gemination and its place within general prosodic tendencies observed in Finnic languages. Second, it uses acoustic data from Soikkola Ingrian, which manifests one of the most developed Finnic systems of secondary gemination, to argue about the relative chronology and phonetic mechanisms of this gemination. The conclusion is that the phonetic duration of phonologised secondary geminates cannot be used as an argument for their age, because, as our acoustic data in [1] showed, their duration is regulated by compensatory stress-induced shortening as a function of the foot structure. On the other hand, the atypical prosodic positions of trisyllabic secondary gemination in Soikkola Ingrian can indeed suggest the younger age of this particular type of gemination.
(open access) Kuznetsova N., Brodskaya I., Markus E. Compensatory effects of foot structure in segmental durations of Soikkola Ingrian disyllables and trisyllables. Journal of Phonetics, 100C, 101246, 2023
This acoustic study explores compensatory influences of foot structure on segmental duration and ... more This acoustic study explores compensatory influences of foot structure on segmental duration and quantity in the foot nuclei of 22 trisyllabic and four disyllabic structures in vanishing Soikkola Ingrian (Finnic). A robust ternary quantity contrast of consonants is confirmed for both disyllables and trisyllables. While in the shortest disyllables the contrast is “pure” (i.e., not significantly reinforced by the durations of other segments), in all trisyllables it is enhanced through the durationally inverse (compensatory) effects in other segments. In this, the situation in trisyllables is closer to that attested in other languages with ternary consonantal quantity than the situation in disyllables. The phonological quantity contrast has been lost from the second syllable vowel of trisyllables, and its duration is now inversely related to the first syllable complexity. In the segments preceding this vowel, all compensatory effects are purely phonetic. Shorter segmental durations and stronger compensatory effects in trisyllables than in disyllables indicate tendencies for both polysegmental and polysyllabic shortening. We discuss a potential relation of observed compensatory effects of shortening and lengthening (a “half-long” vowel) to foot isochrony and metrical stress.
Kuznetsova, Natalia, Brodskaya, Irina & Markus, Elena. In Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Radek Skarnitzl & Jan Volín (eds), 2961-65. Prague: Guarant International, <https://drive.google.com/file/d/16qDrh3OAiJ853cKzrNW0_GkhN90tDh5M/view>, 2023
The talk describes interaction between phonological quantity (originally, binary) and the compens... more The talk describes interaction between phonological quantity (originally, binary) and the compensatory effects of foot structure in sonorants at the 2nd and the 3rd syllable boundary (C3) in the trisyllabic foot of vanishing Soikkola Ingrian (Finnic). Such interaction had been previously observed as a phonetic effect in the 1st syllable segments and as a phonological impact on the 2nd syllable vowels [1]. C3 sonorants are also affected, both phonologically and phonetically, and their binary length contrast is almost lost. Depending on the foot structure, original C3 sonorant geminates are either retained, or nearly or completely shortened to singletons. This result is placed within other results on the trisyllabic foot, which appears to be a coherent metrical unit different from both the disyllabic foot and the bifoot trisyllabic word in Soikkola Ingrian.
Ануфриев А. А. и др. (ред.). Проблемы языка: Сборник научных статей по материалам Девятой конференции-школы «Проблемы языка: взгляд молодых ученых» (28–29 апреля 2022 г.). М.: Институт языкознания РАН, 5-26. doi: 10.37892/978-5-6049527-1-9-1, 2022
The paper studies a correlation between the duration of a consonant and the length or presence of... more The paper studies a correlation between the duration of a consonant and the length or presence of the following vowel in the Finnic varieties of Ingria of the Lower Luga region: dialects of the Finnish, Ingrian and Votic languages, as well as in a mixed Siberian Ingrian/Finnish variety which also originates from the same region.
Our first hypothesis (a) about a compensatory (inversely proportional) lengthening of preceding consonants which accompanies the final vowel loss was confirmed on the basis of the three idiolects with a high percentage of final vowel loss (two Southern Lower Luga Ingrian and one Siberian speaker). These idiolects can be considered to be at an intermediate stage of the final vowel reduction between the Finnish language, which has no reduction, and the Estonian language, where the short final vowel has been completely lost from the disyllabic words of the structures discussed in the paper (CVVCV and CVCxCyV).
In our data, C2 directly preceding the reduced V2 (i.e. the short intervocalic consonant in the CVVCV structure or the second consonant of an intervocalic cluster in a CVCxCyV structure) is lengthened if the final vowel is lost. In Estonian, either the long vowel of the first syllable (in the *CVVCV > CVV:C structure) or the first consonant in the cluster (in the *CVCxCyV > *CVCx:Cy structure) had been lengthened. On the other hand, C2 lengthening in our data is often phonetically manifested as a slight post-aspiration of this consonant rather than through a prolongation of its main articulation. Durations of C2 and C2x were the longest in the Siberian data, which represent the most advanced stage of the reduction and loss of V2 among the studied varieties.
Our second hypothesis (b) about an anticompensatory (directly proportional) lengthening of the word-initial consonant (C1) before a long vowel (V1), as compared to the position before the short V1, was also generally confirmed. However, a statistically significant increase in the duration of C1 before a long V1 was found only for the Votic speaker, while for the rest of speakers, it was observed only as a weak insignificant trend. The compared structures CVVCV and CVCxCy, however, differed not only in the length of V1, but also in the length of C2 (single consonant vs. cluster), so their comparison was not perfect to study this effect.
In general, the type of interaction between the duration of some segments and the length or presence of other segments in the studied Finnic varieties seems to depend, at least partially, on the stage of the final vowel reduction and loss. This type of interaction may also be different for the first and second syllable. The correlation between C1 duration and V1 length does not depend on the degree of V2 reduction, while the correlation between C2 duration and the presence of V2 apparently does.
Proceedings of the 11th Speech Prosody, 23-26 May, 2022. Lisboa: Universidade de Lisboa, 327-331, 2022
The vanishing Soikkola dialect of Ingrian (Finnic; Uralic) manifests an ongoing shortening of sec... more The vanishing Soikkola dialect of Ingrian (Finnic; Uralic) manifests an ongoing shortening of second syllable unstressed long vowels (V2) in trisyllables. Our major acoustic study [1] showed that the original phonological contrast of long and short V2 is currently in a state of fine-grained continuum from contrast maintenance to complete merger, depending on the structure. Structural variation is aggravated by considerable interspeaker variability, addresed in this paper. Out of the five studied speakers, three were innovative and two conservative as regards long V2 shortening. Speakers do not communicate in the language any longer, which affects the natural curve of sound changes. Moreover, this particular sound change is likely never to be completed due to imminent language loss. Unfinished long V2 shortening with its high interspeaker variability creates challenges for the development of practical transcription, needed for language description, codification, and teaching, and for the typological placement of the rare ternary quantity contrast of consonants attested in Soikkola Ingrian.
Acta Linguistica Petropolitana. Trudy ILI RAN, XVI, 3, 184-288, 2020
These are the texts written by a prominent activist and a speaker of the Vanakülä variety of the ... more These are the texts written by a prominent activist and a speaker of the Vanakülä variety of the Lower Luga Ingrian dialect N. D. Põder (his memoirs were published in Russian as Põder 2019). He created an alphabet and was writing down texts, phrases and words in his native variety throughout years . These manuscripts with his original orthography, phonological transcription, morphological glossing, and Russian translation were prepared for publication and enriched with comments on particular aspects of phonetics and phonology, morphology, lexicon and syntax. The readings of the manuscripts by their author have been also recorded and used for this publication.
Phonetica 76:2-3, 201-233, 2019
Individual variability in sound change was explored at three stages of final vowel reduction and ... more Individual variability in sound change was explored at three stages of final vowel reduction and loss in the endangered Finnic varieties of Ingria (subdialects of Ingrian, Votic, Ingrian Finnish). A correlation between the realisation of reduced vowels and their phonemic categorisation by speakers was studied. Correlated results showed that if V was pronounced >70%, its started loss was not yet perceived, apart for certain frequent elements, but after >70% of loss V was not perceived any more. A split of 50/50 between V and loss in production correlated to the same split in categorisation. At the beginning of sound change, the production is, therefore, more innovative, but after reanalysis the categorisation becomes more innovative and leads the change.Vowel 'a' was the most innovative in terms of loss, 'u/o' the most conservative, and 'i' in the middle, while the consonantal palatalisation was more salient than labialisation. These differences are grounded in their acoustics, articulation and perception. <Ask me for the copy of this paper if you cannot get hold of it>
Linguistica Uralica, 53(3), 226-229, Sep 2017
Review on a new handbook by the phoneticians of the University of Tartu which contains an overvie... more Review on a new handbook by the phoneticians of the University of Tartu which contains an overview of the main achievements of Estonian phonetics and phonology written in Estonian
Linguistica Uralica, 52(1), 1-25, 2016
The paper traces the evolutionary path of the non-initial vocalic length contrast in the Finnic v... more The paper traces the evolutionary path of the non-initial vocalic length contrast in the Finnic varieties of Ingria and the adjacent areas, from long vs. short vowels to short vs. no vowels. On the material from living varieties of the Ingrian, Votic, Finnish and Estonian languages, this sound change can be modeled very precisely, with statistical phonetic data analyzed for each stage of it. Among other things, the changes in various types of ratios between long and short vowels are described in more innovative varieties, as compared to Standard Finnish, which represents the most conservative stage. A special section describes a phonetic study on the reflexes of short vowels in Southern Lower Luga Ingrian, as well as in a mixed Siberian Ingrian/Finnish dialect. In these two varieties, vowel reduction, devoicing and elision occur at the most advanced level before the complete vowel loss. Also, a correlated study on phonemic categorization of these vowels by the native speakers themselves is discussed. Both experiments indicate that in Southern Lower Luga Ingrian short vowel reflexes still retain the vocalic phonemic status, while in Siberian Ingrian/Finnish they should already be treated as consonantal features of palalization and labialiazation.
In: Hilpert M., Duke J., Mertzlufft Ch., Östman J.-O., Rießler M. (eds.). New Trends in Nordic and General Linguistics (Linguae & Litterae 42). Berlin: De Gruyter, 91-117, 2015
The paper considers two typologically rare phonological phenomena related to the development of s... more The paper considers two typologically rare phonological phenomena related to the development of sound lengthening and reduction that appear in two dialects of the severely endangered Ingrian language in North-Western Russia. The first is attested in the Soikkola dialect, and involves a phonological ternary quantity contrast of consonants. The second exists in the Lower Luga dialect, and involves a phonological opposition of full modal and reduced voiceless vowels. First, brief phonetic, phonological and typological profiles of these contrasts are given. Furthermore, I analyze their probable further evolution against the typological background of the development of similar phenomena in genetically related and unrelated languages. In the end, I discuss the question of stability and maintenance forces of these contrasts, as well as their significance in light of general prosodic development of the Soikkola and Lower Luga dialects.
H. Marten, M. Riessler, J. Saarikivi, R. Toivanen (eds.). Cultural and linguistic minorities in the Russian Federation and the European Union. (Multilingual Education 13: Comparative studies on equality and diversity). Berlin: Springer, 127-167, 2015
The chapter discusses Finnic languages spoken in Ingria (Votic, Ingrian and Ingrian Finnish), giv... more The chapter discusses Finnic languages spoken in Ingria (Votic, Ingrian and Ingrian Finnish), gives a detailed overview of the current language situation, and analyses the processes that have caused a language and identity shift. There are many common features in the history of these languages, and they greatly influenced each other through intensive language contacts. Nonetheless, the current situation shows individual characteristics for each language. The paper addresses the following issues for each of the three languages: the dialectal structure and historical language contacts; contemporary language situation (the number and geographical distribution of the speakers, their age, gender, mobility, contacts with other languages and attitudes towards the native language); historical background of the present situation; and prospects for the near future and recent language maintenance and revitalization efforts.
Acta linguistica Petropolitana. Труды ИЛИ РАН, XI(2), 201-257, 2015
В статье подробно рассматриваются два типологически редких фонологических явления, связанных с ре... more В статье подробно рассматриваются два типологически редких фонологических явления, связанных с редукцией и продлением звуков. Они представлены в двух еще сохранившихся диалектах исчезающего ижорского языка в Кингисеппском районе Ленинградской области. Первое явление — это фонологически значимый тернарный контраст согласных, который зафиксирован в сойкинском диалекте. Второе отмечено в нижнелужском диалекте и представляет из себя оппозицию полных гласных и глухих редуцированных гласных. Вначале дается краткая фонетическая, фонологическая и типологическая характеристика этих явлений. Затем приводится анализ их исторического развития, подробное описание фонетической и фонологической структуры и предположения о наиболее вероятных путях дальнейшей эволюции. В заключение обсуждается вопрос об их стабильности и путях сохранения в языке, а также значение в свете общего просодического развития сойкинского и нижнелужского диалектов.
In: Asu E. L., Lippus P. (eds.). Nordic Prosody: Proceedings of the XIth Conference, Tartu, 2012. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2013
The paper discusses Finnic lengthening of foot nucleus segments before the original long vo-wels.... more The paper discusses Finnic lengthening of foot nucleus segments before the original long vo-wels. Three types are considered: (1) “Finnish”: the most prominent phonetic lengthening right before a long vowel; (2) “Soikkola Ingrian”: partly phonologized lengthening spread to the whole foot nucleus; (3) “Estonian”: fully phonologized lengthening in the first syllable.
Golovko E. V., Lurie M. L., Muslimov M. Z., Oskolskaya S. A. (eds.). ‘Folk linguistics’: Language from speakers’ perspective. Paper abstracts for the conference, St. Petersburg, November 19–21, 2012. СПб.: Нестор-История, 2012
A comparison of my phonological description of the vowel reduction in Southern Lower Luga Ingrian... more A comparison of my phonological description of the vowel reduction in Southern Lower Luga Ingrian and the reflection of the reduction in the "naive" orthographic systems of the manusctipts written by the speakers of the variety.
Вопросы языкознания [Voprosy yazykoznania], 5, 18-47, 2009
The paper discusses a model of suprasegmental word-prosodic units for the Soikkola dialect of Ing... more The paper discusses a model of suprasegmental word-prosodic units for the Soikkola dialect of Ingrian. Traditional units "stress" and "tone" are not enough to describe the prosody of the basic hierarchical levels (up to the level of the word inclusive). A broader notion of word accent is therefore used. The definitions of the accent and the foot (the key terms for the Soikkola word prosody) are given, as well as a brief cross-linguistic review of the word-prodosic systems (mostly European) for which the broader notion of accent (other that just stress-accent) also seems relevant.
В статье обсуждается моделирование системы супрасегментных просодических единиц для сойкинского диалекта ижорского языка. Традиционные фонологические просодические единицы «ударение» и «тон» оказываются не вполне достаточными для описания просодики базовых языковых уровней (до уровня фонетического слова включительно) сойкинского диалекта в его синхронном состоянии. Поэтому предлагается использовать промежуточную между ударением и тоном единицу – «акцент». В первой части работы дается определение ключевых для работы терминов «акцент» и «стопа», а также приводится краткий типологический обзор просодических систем (главным образом, языков Евразии), для которых описание через «акценты» представляется наиболее адекватным.
Summary of the Candidate of Sciences dissertation (in Russian), 2009
Uploads
New by Natalia Kuznetsova
Finnic by Natalia Kuznetsova
Our first hypothesis (a) about a compensatory (inversely proportional) lengthening of preceding consonants which accompanies the final vowel loss was confirmed on the basis of the three idiolects with a high percentage of final vowel loss (two Southern Lower Luga Ingrian and one Siberian speaker). These idiolects can be considered to be at an intermediate stage of the final vowel reduction between the Finnish language, which has no reduction, and the Estonian language, where the short final vowel has been completely lost from the disyllabic words of the structures discussed in the paper (CVVCV and CVCxCyV).
In our data, C2 directly preceding the reduced V2 (i.e. the short intervocalic consonant in the CVVCV structure or the second consonant of an intervocalic cluster in a CVCxCyV structure) is lengthened if the final vowel is lost. In Estonian, either the long vowel of the first syllable (in the *CVVCV > CVV:C structure) or the first consonant in the cluster (in the *CVCxCyV > *CVCx:Cy structure) had been lengthened. On the other hand, C2 lengthening in our data is often phonetically manifested as a slight post-aspiration of this consonant rather than through a prolongation of its main articulation. Durations of C2 and C2x were the longest in the Siberian data, which represent the most advanced stage of the reduction and loss of V2 among the studied varieties.
Our second hypothesis (b) about an anticompensatory (directly proportional) lengthening of the word-initial consonant (C1) before a long vowel (V1), as compared to the position before the short V1, was also generally confirmed. However, a statistically significant increase in the duration of C1 before a long V1 was found only for the Votic speaker, while for the rest of speakers, it was observed only as a weak insignificant trend. The compared structures CVVCV and CVCxCy, however, differed not only in the length of V1, but also in the length of C2 (single consonant vs. cluster), so their comparison was not perfect to study this effect.
In general, the type of interaction between the duration of some segments and the length or presence of other segments in the studied Finnic varieties seems to depend, at least partially, on the stage of the final vowel reduction and loss. This type of interaction may also be different for the first and second syllable. The correlation between C1 duration and V1 length does not depend on the degree of V2 reduction, while the correlation between C2 duration and the presence of V2 apparently does.
В статье обсуждается моделирование системы супрасегментных просодических единиц для сойкинского диалекта ижорского языка. Традиционные фонологические просодические единицы «ударение» и «тон» оказываются не вполне достаточными для описания просодики базовых языковых уровней (до уровня фонетического слова включительно) сойкинского диалекта в его синхронном состоянии. Поэтому предлагается использовать промежуточную между ударением и тоном единицу – «акцент». В первой части работы дается определение ключевых для работы терминов «акцент» и «стопа», а также приводится краткий типологический обзор просодических систем (главным образом, языков Евразии), для которых описание через «акценты» представляется наиболее адекватным.