The Length of Final Vowels with Respect to Case ­Syncretism in Luuditsa Votic
The Length of Final Vowels with Respect to Case ­Syncretism in Luuditsa Votic

Summary/Abstract: The paper presents experimental phonetic research on the contemporary Votic language. The data were recorded by the author from the last speakers of the Liivtšüla-Luuditsa variety. The main question addressed in the paper is whether the length of the final vowel distinguishes the case forms that do not have case markers and do not differ through grade alternations. The acoustic analysis has proved that: the vowel length is considerably reduced in non-initial syllables; there is no opposition of the originally long and half-long vowels in the CVCV structure; the final short -a/-ä vowels have reduced their quantity and changed their quality, and the reduction of the final short vowels other than -a/-ä is only quantitative and not consistent. Based on the experimental results the paper further discusses syncretism in nominal paradigms, possible variants of transcription for the contemporary Liivtšüla-Luuditsa ­variety, and the ­dynamics of quantitative and qualitative phonological contrasts in the Votic language.

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