Vocalism In The Middle Chulym Language: Some Preliminary Results

The article is devoted to analysing vocalism in Middle Chulym, one of the two dialects of the Chulym Turkic language, which belongs to the Khakass-Shor subgroup of Turkic languages. The article examines various phonetic processes associated with the development of vowels, including the changes that have occurred from a historical perspective and in relation to synchronic phonetic phenomena. The authors have carried out a detailed analysis of the changes in Proto-Turkic vowels in Middle Chulym, including the raising, labialisation and reflection of vowels in position after velar consonants. The influence of the consonantal environment on the qualitative and quantitative changes of the vowels, such as compensatory and contractive length, as well as specific cases of contraction in different contexts, are also considered. The main focus is on acoustic data obtained in field studies, which allow us to clarify previously assumed phonetic changes. In particular, the assumptions about the complete transition of the front vowels to the back row, which were made on the basis of auditory analyses, are refuted. These processes allow a better understanding of the internal development of Middle Chulym vocalism and the identification of its unique innovations that distinguish this dialect from other languages of the Khakass subgroup.