Compendium of the World's Languages

PHONOLOGY

Consonants

stops: p, t, k, q, "^
affricate: tj
fricatives: v/p, j, y
nasals: m, n, r)
lateral: 1
roll: r

The lateral / is voiceless.

Vowels

weak: i, e, u
strong: e, a, o

That is /e/ = [s] is ambivalent; h/ is neutral. This division underhes the
Chukchi system of vowel harmony: the vowels in a word are drawn either
from the weak or from the strong series, not from both. What is particularly
interesting about Chukchi vowel harmony is that root vowels in a weak-
series word are regraded to strong series when a strong-series affix is added
to the word. This is in striking contrast with Altaic, for example, where it is
the affix that takes its vocalic cue from the stem. This also happens in
Chukchi: ^s-ee Verb below.

Examples of regrading of weak vowels before a strong-series affix are
given by Skorik in JaNSSR, Vol V (1968): kerjikupren 'sweep-net',
ya.kaTjekopra,ma 'with the sweep-net', where weak-series e, U u have been
regraded as a, e, o, in concord with comitative case-marker ya, .. ma. The
reverse case - the regrading of strong vowels as weak - is not found.

COMPENDIUM

OF THE

WORLD'S
LANGUAGES

SECOND EDITION
GEORGE L. CAMPBELL
ISBN 0-415-20298-1 (Set)

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

by Routledge

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© 1991, 2000 George L. Campbell