The Phonetics and Phonology of a Disyllabic Foot in Soikkola Ingrian
The Phonetics and Phonology of a Disyllabic Foot in Soikkola Ingrian

Summary/Abstract: This paper examines the durational characteristics of vowels and consonants in contemporary Soikkola Ingrian, discusses the phonological interpretation of durational contrasts, and studies correlations between the duration of different segments in the foot. The object of the study is limited to disyllabic feet with an open second syllable. The acoustic study shows three durational types of vowels both in the first and second syllable, but only two contrastive types, short and long vowels, are distinguished on the phonological level. Intervocalic consonants have five durational types on the phonetic level, and three contrastive types on the phonological level: single consonants vs. short geminates vs. full geminates. The analysis shows that contemporary Ingrian is undergoing a gradual change from a northern to a southern type Finnic language: the quantity opposition of short and long vowels in non-initial syllables is on the way to be replaced by the quality opposition of reduced and full vowels.

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