Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T16:10:05.501Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - Consonantism: The Consonants

from Part 1 - Prosody and Phonology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2024

By
Peter Jurgec
Edited by
Danko Šipka  and
Wayles Browne
Danko Šipka
Affiliation:
Arizona State University
Wayles Browne
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Get access

Summary

This chapter examines consonants in Slavic languages primarily from a synchronic perspective. I begin by reviewing the consonant inventories. Key properties of the inventories are secondary palatalization, a large inventory of coronal fricatives and affricates, and a voicing contrast in obstruents. The remainder of the chapter reviews four types of consonant patterns: palatalization, voicing, other local alternations, and long-distance alternations. Palatalization is inherited from Proto-Slavic, but the contemporary languages differ in terms of segments undergoing it, morphological triggers, and phonological conditioning. Slavic voicing alternations offer typological insight into the extent of cross-linguistic variation. The key differences are in final devoicing, directionality, and participation of sonorants. Slavic languages also exhibit limited place assimilation, dissimilation, and consonant decomposition. As for long-distance patterns, I review both assimilatory (sibilant consonant harmony) and dissimilatory (consonant co-occurrence restrictions) phenomena in two Slavic languages.

Keywords

consonant inventoriespalatalizationassimilationvoicingdevoicingconsonant harmonyOCP
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Slavic Linguistics , pp. 45 - 63
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arsenault, P. & Kochetov, A. (2011). Retroflex harmony in Kalasha: Agreement or spreading? In Lima, S., Mullin, K., & Smith, B., eds., Proceedings of NELS 39, Amherst, MA: GLSA, University of Massachusetts, pp. 55–66.Google Scholar
Bateman, N. (2007). A Crosslinguistic Investigation of Palatalization. PhD dissertation, University of California, San Diego.Google Scholar
Bishop, J., Oh, S., & Zhou, C. (2019). Final devoicing in Bulgarian: Incomplete neutralization and L2 experience. In Calhoun, S., Escudero, P., Tabain, M., & Warren, P., eds., Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Melbourne, Australia 2019, Canberra: Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc., pp. 652–656.Google Scholar
Blaho, S. (2008). The Syntax of Phonology: A Radically Substance-Free Approach. PhD dissertation, University of Tromsø.Google Scholar
Blumenfeld, L. (2002). Russian palatalization and Stratal OT: Morphology and [back]. In Browne, W., Kim, J.-Y., Partee, B., & Rothstein, R., eds., Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics 11. The Amherst Meeting, 2002, Ann Arbor, MI: Michigan Slavic Publications, pp. 141–158.Google Scholar
Bon, M. (2017). Soglasniška harmonija v primorskih narečjih [Consonant harmony in Primorska Slovenian]. Unpublished manuscript, University of Ljubljana.Google Scholar
Browne, W. (1993). Serbo-Croat. In Comrie, B. & Corbett, G. G, eds., The Slavonic Languages, London & New York, NY: Routledge, pp. 306–387.Google Scholar
Burzio, L. (2011). Derived environment effects. In van Oostendorp, M., Ewen, C. J., Hume, E., & Rice, K. D., eds., The Blackwell Companion to Phonology, Malden, MA: Blackwell, pp. 2091–2116.Google Scholar
Butska, L. (1998). Faithfulness to [voice] in Ukrainian: An analysis of voicing alternations within Optimality Theory. RuLing Papers, 1, 59–79.Google Scholar
Chen, M. (1970). Vowel length variation as a function of the voicing of the consonant environment. Phonetica, 22, 129–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clements, G. N. (1990). The role of the sonority cycle in core syllabification. In Kingston, J. & Beckman, M. E., eds., Papers in Laboratory Phonology 1, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 283–333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Czaykowska Higgins, E. (1989). Investigations into Polish morphology and phonology. PhD dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Google Scholar
Czaykowska Higgins, E. (1992). Placelessness, markedness, and Polish nasals. Linguistic Inquiry, 23, 139–146.Google Scholar
de Bray, R. G. A. (1980). Guide to the South Slavonic Languages, Bloomington, IN: Slavica Publishers.Google Scholar
Dinnsen, D. A. & Charles-Luce, J. (1984). Phonological neutralization, phonetic implementation and individual differences. Journal of Phonetics, 12, 49–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dmitrieva, O. (2017). Production of geminate consonants in Russian: Implications for typology. In Kubozono, H., ed., The Phonetics and Phonology of Geminate Consonants, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 34–64.Google Scholar
Friedman, V. A. (1993). Macedonian. In Comrie, B. & Corbett, G. G., eds., The Slavonic Languages, London & New York, NY: Routledge, pp. 249–305.Google Scholar
Guion, G. S. (1998). The role of perception in the sound change of velar palatalization. Phonetica, 55, 18–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gussmann, E. (2007). The Phonology of Polish, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, D. C. (2003). Laryngeal feature specifications in West Slavic languages. Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics, 20, 93–114.Google Scholar
Hall, D. C. (2004). A formal approach to /v/: Evidence from Czech and Slovak. In Arnaudova, O., Browne, W., Rivero, M. L., & Stojanović, D., eds., Formal Approaches to Slavic Languages 12. The Ottawa Meeting, 2003, Ann Arbor, MI: Michigan Slavic Publications, pp. 187–205.Google Scholar
Hall, T. A. (2000). Typological generalizations concerning secondary palatalization. Lingua, 110, 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, T. A. & Hamann, S. (2010). On the cross-linguistic avoidance of rhotic plus high front vocoid sequences. Lingua, 120, 1821–1844.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamann, S. (2004). Retroflex fricatives in Slavic languages. Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34, 53–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansson, G. Ó. (2001). Theoretical and Typological Issues in Consonant Harmony. PhD dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Hansson, G. Ó. (2010). Consonant Harmony: Long-Distance Interaction in Phonology. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Hansson, G. Ó. (2020). Consonant harmony. In Aronoff, M., ed., Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics, Oxford: Oxford University Press, https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.369.Google Scholar
Hayes, B. (1984). The phonetics and phonology of Russian voicing assimilation. In Aronoff, M., Oehrle, R., Kelley, F., & Wilker Stephens., B., eds., Language Sound Structure, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 318–328.Google Scholar
Howson, P. (2017). Upper Sorbian. Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 47, 359–367.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howson, P. (2018). Palatalization and rhotics: An acoustic examination of Sorbian. Phonetica, 75, 132–150.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Iskarous, K. & Kavitskaya, D. (2010). The interaction between contrast, prosody, and coarticulation in structuring phonetic variability. Journal of Phonetics, 38, 625–639.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Iskarous, K. & Kavitskaya, D. (2018). Sound change and the structure of synchronic variablity: Phonetic and phonological factors in Slavic palatalization. Language, 94, 43–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jakobson, R. (1978). Mutual assimilation of Russian voiced and voiceless consonants. Studia Linguistica, 32, 107–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jurgec, P. (2011). Feature Spreading 2.0: A Unified Theory of Assimilation. PhD dissertation, University of Tromsø. http://ling.auf.net/lingBuzz/001281.Google Scholar
Jurgec, P. (2016). Velar palatalization in Slovenian: Local and long-distance interactions in a Derived Environment Effect. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics, 1, 24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jurgec, P. (2019). Opacity in Šmartno Slovenian. Phonology, 36, 265–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jurgec, P. & Schertz, J. (2020). Postalveolar co-occurrence restrictions in Slovenian. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 38, 499–537.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kapatsinski, V. (2010). Velar palatalization in Russian and artificial grammar: Constraints on models of morphophonology. Laboratory Phonology, 1, 361–393.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kavitskaya, D. (2009). Perceptual salience and palatalization in Russian. In Goldstein, L. M., Whalen, D. H., & Best, C. T., eds., Laboratory Phonology 8, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 589–610.Google Scholar
Kavitskaya, D., Iskarous, Kh., Noiray, A., & Proctor, M. (2009). Trills and palatalization: Consequences for sound change. In Reich, J., Babyonyshev, M., & Kavitskaya, D., eds., Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics 17. The Yale Meeting, 2008, Ann Arbor, MI: Michigan Slavic Publications, pp. 97–110.Google Scholar
Kharlamov, V. (2014). Incomplete neutralization of the voicing contrast in word-final obstruents in Russian: Phonological, lexical, and methodological influences. Journal of Phonetics, 43, 47–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kiparsky, P. (1985). Some consequences of Lexical Phonology. Phonology, 2, 85–138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kiparsky, P. (1993). Blocking in non-derived environments. In Hargus, S. & Kaisse, E. M., eds., Phonetics and Phonology 4: Studies in Lexical Phonology, San Diego, CA: Academic Press, pp. 277–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kochetov, A. (2002). Production, Perception, and Emergent Phonotactic Patterns: A Case of Contrastive Palatalization, New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kochetov, A. (2006). Testing licensing by cue: A case of Russian palatalized coronals. Phonetica, 63, 113–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kochetov, A. (2011). Palatalization. In van Oostendorp, M., Ewen, C. J., Hume, E., & Rice, K. D., eds., The Blackwell Companion to Phonology, Malden, MA: Blackwell, pp. 1666–1690.Google Scholar
Kochetov, A. (2017). Acoustics of the Russian voiceless sibilant fricatives. Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 47, 321–348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kochetov, A. & Radisic, M. (2009). Latent consonant harmony in Russian: Experimental evidence for Agreement by Correspondence. In Reich, J., Babyonyshev, M., & Kavitskaya, D., eds., Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics 17. The Yale Meeting, 2008, Ann Arbor, MI: Michigan Slavic Publications, pp. 111–130.Google Scholar
Kulikov, V. (2012). Voicing and Voice Assimilation in Russian Stops. PhD dissertation, University of Iowa.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kulikov, V. (2013). Voicing contrast in consonant clusters: Evidence against sonorant transparency to voice assimilation in Russian. Phonology, 30, 423–452.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Linzen, T., Kasyanenko, S., & Gouskova, M. (2013). Lexical and phonological variation in Russian prepositions. Phonology, 30, 453–515.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lombardi, L. (1999). Positional Faithfulness and voicing assimilation in Optimality Theory. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 17, 267–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Łubowicz, A. (2002). Derived environment effects in Optimality Theory. Lingua, 112, 243–280.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Łubowicz, A. (2016). Contrast preservation in Polish palatalization. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics, 1(21), 1–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lunt, H. G. (1952). A Grammar of the Macedonian Literary Language, Skopje: Državno knigoizdatelstvo.Google Scholar
Maddieson, I. (2013). Consonant inventories. In Dryer, M. S. & Haspelmath, M., eds., The World Atlas of Language Structures Online, Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, http://wals.info/chapter/1.Google Scholar
Misic, M. S. (2018). Slovenian Sibilant Harmony. MA thesis, University of Toronto.Google Scholar
Morén, B. (2006). Consonant-vowel interactions in Serbian: Features, representations and constraint interactions. Lingua, 116, 1198–1244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ozburn, A. & Kochetov, A. (2018). Ejective harmony in Lezgian. Phonology, 35, 407–440.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Padgett, J. (1992). OCP subsidiary features. In Proceedings of NELS 22, Amherst, MA: GLSA, University of Massachusetts, pp. 335–346.Google Scholar
Padgett, J. (1994). Stricture and nasal place assimilation. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 12, 465–513.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Padgett, J. (2001). Contrast dispersion in Russian palatalization. In Hume, E. & Johnson, K., eds., The Role of Speech Perception in Phonology, San Diego, CA: Academic Press, pp. 187–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Padgett, J. (2002). Russian voicing assimilation, final devoicing, and the problem of [v]. Ms., University of California Santa Cruz. Available on Rutgers Optimality Archive 528, http://roa.rutgers.edu.Google Scholar
Padgett, J. (2003). Contrast and post-velar fronting in Russian. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 21, 39–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Padgett, J. (2011). Russian consonant–vowel interactions and derivational opacity. In Browne, W., Cooper, A., Fisher, A., Kesici, E., Predolac, N., & Zec, D., eds., Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics 18. The Second Cornell Meeting, 2009, Ann Arbor, MI: Michigan Slavic Publications, pp. 352–381.Google Scholar
Padgett, J. (2012). The role of prosody in Russian voicing. In Borowsky, T., Kawahara, S., Shinya, T., & Sugahara, M., eds., Essays in Honor of Elisabeth Selkirk, London: Equinox Publishing, pp. 181–207.Google Scholar
Padgett, J. & Żygis, M. (2007). The evolution of sibilants in Polish and Russian. Journal of Slavic Linguistics, 15, 291–324.Google Scholar
Palková, Z. (1997). Fonetika a fonologie češtiny, Prague: Karolinum.Google Scholar
Petrova, O. & Szentgyörgyi, S. (2004). /v/ and voice assimilation in Hungarian and Russian. Folia Linguistica, 38, 87–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Port, R. F. & O’Dell, M. L. (1985). Neutralization of syllable-final voicing in German. Journal of Phonetics, 13, 455–471.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rose, S. & Walker, R. (2004). A typology of consonant agreement as correspondence. Language, 80, 475–531.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubach, J. (1984). Cyclic and Lexical Phonology: The Structure of Polish, Dordrecht: Foris.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubach, J. (1996). Nonsyllabic analysis of voice assimilation in Polish. Linguistic Inquiry, 27, 69–110.Google Scholar
Rubach, J. (2000). Backness switch in Russian. Phonology, 17, 39–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubach, J. (2003). Polish palatalization in derivational Optimality Theory. Lingua, 113, 197–237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubach, J. (2008a). Palatal nasal decomposition in Slovene, Upper Sorbian and Polish. Journal of Linguistics, 44, 169–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubach, J. (2008b). Prevocalic faithfulness. Phonology, 25, 433–468.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubach, J. (2011). Slavic palatalization. In van Oostendorp, M., Ewen, C. J., Hume, E., & Rice, K., eds., The Blackwell Companion to Phonology, Malden, MA: Blackwell, pp. 2908–2935.Google Scholar
Rubach, J. (2017). Derivational meanders of high vowel palatalization. Lingua, 199, 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubach, J. (2019). Surface velar palatalization in Polish. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 37, 1421–1462.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubach, J. & Booij, G. E. (1990). Edge of constituent effects in Polish. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 8, 427–463.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schenker, A. M. (1993). Proto-Slavonic. In Comrie, B. & Corbett, G. G., eds., The Slavonic Languages. London & New York, NY: Routledge, pp. 188–248.Google Scholar
Shrager, M. (2012). Neutralization of word-final voicing in Russian. Journal of Slavic Linguistics, 20, 71–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Srebot-Rejec, T. (1981). On the allophones of /v/ in Standard Slovene. Scando-Slavica, 27, 233–241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Srebot-Rejec, T. (1990). Zveze dveh zapornikov v slovenščini in angleščini. Slavistična revija, 38, 265–284.Google Scholar
Steenwijk, H. (1992). The Slovene Dialect of Resia: San Giorgio, Amsterdam: Rodopi.Google Scholar
Strycharczuk, P. (2012). Sonorant transparency and the complexity of voicing in Polish. Journal of Phonetics, 40, 655–671.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sussex, R. & Cubberley, P. (2006). The Slavic Languages [Cambridge Language Surveys], Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ševc Šuster, H. (1984). Gramatika hornjoserbskeje rěce: 1. zwjazk fonologija, fonetika a morfologija, Budyšin: Ludowe nakładnistwo Domowina.Google Scholar
Šuštaršič, R., Komar, S., & Petek, B. (1995). Slovene. Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 25, 86–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warner, N., Jongman, A., Sereno, J., & Kemps, R. (2004). Incomplete neutralization and other sub-phonemic durational differences in production and perception: Evidence from Dutch. Journal of Phonetics, 32, 251–276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wetzels, L. & Mascaró, J. (2001). The typology of voicing and devoicing. Language, 77, 207–244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Żygis, M. (2003). Phonetic and phonological aspects of Slavic sibilant fricatives. ZAS Papers in Linguistics, 3, 175–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×