Correlation of Vocal and Consonant Components of Word Form in Turkic and Mongolian Languages

The algorithms for the correlation of vocal and consonant components of the sound structure of a soft-order word form are investigated using material from the Turkic languages of Southern Siberia and the Mongolian languages of Russia and Mongolia. According to the results of the auditory and instrumental analysis, four models of the implementation of the category of softness were identified in the Turkic and Mongolian languages, the selection of which is based on the presence of either a class of phonemes of the mediolingual and medio-interlingual articulatory series in the consonant system (the 1st and 2nd correlation model are implemented in all Turkic languages considered except Khakass and Mongolian–Kalmyk) or a class of palatalized units with different phonemic status (3rd and 4th model in Khakass, Khori-Buryat, Khalkha-Mongolian). The 1st model is characterized by the acoustic effect of a strong or moderate softness of the consonant: mediolingual and medio-interlingual consonants can only be combined with vowels of the front row. The 2nd model is realized with the acoustic effect of a weak or super-weak palatalization: frontlingual, interlingual, and backlingual consonants require vowels of the central, central-back, or mixed articulatory series after them. The 3rd model is used in soft-order word forms with vowels of the front articulatory series that have a regressive assimilative effect on the preceding consonant and cause its strong or moderate palatalization. The 4th model is used in word forms with non-frontal vowels of a soft synharmonic series (central, central-back, and mixed-row) that cause only a weak palatalization of a prepositive consonant. The obvious material and structural similarity of phonico-phonological systems, a unified typology of the principles of formation of the phonetic appearance of the word form in the South Siberian Turkic and Mongolian languages have developed in the process of long-term contacts of ethnic groups and their languages in different areas of their distribution and in different periods of historical development.

South Siberian Turkic languages, Mongolian languages, phonetics, vocalism, consonantism, palatality, palatalization, correlation models