Vowel aspiration and glottalisation across Udihe dialects: phonetics, phonology, evolution, typology

The chapter discusses phonetic, phonological, evolutionary, and typological properties of two particular features in the vanishing Udihe language (Tungusic): vowel aspiration and glottalisation. In their evolution, traced from the end of the 19th century to the 2000s, two main aspects are distinguished: (1) a qualitative evolution from consonants to vowel features and word-prosodic features and (2) a loss of the syllabic boundary between two short vowels, where the original consonants occurred. While aspiration is nearly lost, glottalisation can now be occasionally realised as a pitch dip within a long vowel. The latter realisations do not, however, necessarily imply the transformation of glottalisation into a lexical pitch-accent or tone. They rather represent an articulatory target undershoot, which is at least partially induced by the process of language loss and the influence of “lax” Russian articulation. On the other hand, Udihe glottalisation has already accumulated enough word-prosodic features to permit also a phonological analysis as a glottal prosody, typologically similar to Danish stød and lexical laryngeal prosodies in some Otomanguean languages. In spite of a potential for further word-prosodic development, glottalisation is likely to be lost, in the same way as aspiration. This pathway is suggested by the pressure of the dominating Russian language which lacks such features.