2. Phonological System



2.1 Vowels

Udi distinguishes six base vowels:

/a/
 kala
ala
g/ar
 house
high
son
/e/
 elas
besun
s^elle
 oath
to make, produce, light verb (transitive)
it is good, OK
/i/
 ive?l
biq'sun
p'i
 holy
to take
blood
/o/
 o
portbesun
oq'o
 gras
to carry, support, suffer
vinegar
/u/
 uksun
furupsun
s^u
 to eat
to look for, walk around
who?
/e./
 q'e.ndrme.z
ze.g/
qe.le.g/
 fever (Armenian loan)
disrupted Azeri loan)
character (Azeri loan)

/e./ is a central vowel that (roughly speaking) corresponds to Russian /y/.

Additionally, Udi has three palatalized vowels (/ä/,/ö/, /ü/, all of them of secondary origin) and six pharyngealizedvowels (a?/, /e?/, /i?/, /o?/, /o?/, /e.?/) that - in the speech of someUdi - may merge with the correpüonding palatalized variants (/a?/, /e?/> /ä/, /o?/ > ö, /u?/ > /ü/). Pharyngealized vowelsare producedby raising the larynx and compressing the air stream in thepharynx.

Of these vowels, only /a/, /e/, /i/ and /u/ (sometiems old /ü/) reflect Proto-Lezgian vowel phonemes. /o/ normally stems from *Cwe- (labialized consonant plus /e/) or from *ue-. Pharyngealizued vowels either reflect older pharyngealized consonnants plus vowel (*C?V) or result from the loss of a subsequent *-r (sometimes, pharyngealized vowels reflect the correponding palatal in loans). 

There are no nasalized vowels; length may result from teh fusion of two subsequent vowels.




2.2 Consonants

Standard Udi has the following inventory of consonant phonemes (place of articulation is indicated approximatively only):

Stops
      		Affricates
 Spirants

Vd
 Vl
 Gl
 Vd
 Vl
 Gl
 Vd
 Vl
Labial
 b
 p
 p'


v
 f
Dental
 d
 t
 t'
 dz
 c
 c'
 z
 s
Alveolar


dz/
 c/
 c/'
 z/
 s/
Palatal


dz^
 c^
 c^'
 z^
 s^
Velar
 g
 k
 k'


g/
 x
Uvular
q
 q'




Laryngeal






h

Sonants: /r/, /l/, /m/, /n/

Vd = voiced
Vl = voiceless
Gl = Glottalized

Note that many speakers replace the alveolar series by 'strong' (or lengthened) palatals.

Examples:
baiesun
 to come in, go in, enter
p'i
 blood
pesun
 to say, light verb
va?baksun
 to believe
fi
 wine
dizik'
 snake
tul
 young animal
t'ul
 grape
dzax
 left
cicik'
 lily
c'i
 name
zu
 I
sa
 one
dz/ug/ab
 answer
c/o
 face
c/'aq'
 lightning
z/e
 stone
s/um
 bread
girbesun
 to gather
kala
 great
k'as^a
 finger
g/ar
 son
xa?
 dog
qabun
 star
q'oq'
 neck
has^ono
 that one there
me
 this
nep'
 sleep
laft'esun
 to touch
arux
 fire




2.3 Phonotactics

a) Monosyllabic:
V
 o
e		 gras
what
CV
 bi
bi?
g/i
 done
heavy
day
VC
 ap'
ul
is^
 sweat
wolf
man
CVV
 bia
mia
k'ua
 evening
here
at home
VVC
 ait
äiz
 word
village
CVC
 c^al
gon
xas^
 fence
color
moon
CVCC
(basically with loans)
 dündz^
dindz^
vaxt'
 corner
peace
time


b) Polysyllabic

V-CV (oq'a 'under')
CV-CV (k'ic'i 'small')
CV-CVC (qe.qe.p' 'knee')
V-CVC (ive?l 'holy')
V-CV-VC (o?xa?i?l 'yogurt')
CVC-CV (k'alpi 'called')
VC-CV (u?g/sa 'drinking')
V-CV-CVC (eg/elen 'donkey:erg')
CVC-CVC (q'urban 'sacrifice')
CVCC-CVC (bersxun 'to grind')
.....

A rather long chain is given e.g. in:

iaq'c^'ebakalt'g/oxoq'un [fuq'pe]
CVC-CV-CVCC-CV-CV-CVC [CVC-CV]
'they robbed those who passed the way' = 'they robbed the travellers'.

[iaq'-c^'e-bak-al-t'-g/-oxo-q'un fu?q'-p-e]
way-over-lv-part-se:obl-pl-abl-3pl rob-lv-perf

Restrictions:

- CVCC-structures normally have a sonant as their second consonant (CVRC); true CVCC-sturctures are rare except in loans.
- Initial r- is prohibited
- Initial consonant clusters are not allowed (except for younger loans, such as Armenian qndrme.z 'fever' (read: q'e.ndrme.z)).

2.4 Major phonetic processes  

Non accented vowels tend to be eliminated between consonants and when final (bun < bu-nu 'you are'), arq'anci < aq'anuci 'you (sg.) should sit',a?ilux < a?ielux 'children', z/og/la < z/g/ula 'in the summer');
Finals -o is often contracted with a preceding vowel (so: < sa-o 'one', kalo: < kala-o 'a big one'), except if the preceding vowel is -i (baki-o '(s)he who has become...').

Suffixes are often assimilated to secondray features of preceding vowels(palatalization, pharyngealization, cp. bo?q' 'pig', bo?q'u?rg/o?xo 'fromthe pigs' etc.. [palatalizationand pharyngealization are rather suprasegmentalthan segmantal features].

Assimilation takes regularly place in the following instances:

l + n > ll  (k'alnexa  > k'allexa '(s)he calls')
r + n > rr (karnexa > karrexa '(s)he lives')
r + l > rr (saturla > saturra 'with one leg, amputated')
d + l > dd (xodnu > xoddu 'tree:dat1)

Metathesis is an important feature in the verb morphology: the group -des- regularly changes to -st'- (tadesun > tast'un 'to give'), -c^s- resultsin -s^c^- or -sc^- (muc^sun > mus^c^un 'to kiss', ec^sun > esc^un 'tocarry'). Metathesis is also documented in lexical structures (esp. in loans),e.g. e?l?em 'donkey' < *h.elem < *h.emel < h.ima:r (Arabic). amdar(Nidzh) 'man' < adam-ar (pl. tant.).




2.5 Stress

 Today, the stress pattern of Udi resembles that of Azeri (historically, Udi had its words stressed on the first or second syllable). In many instances, the final syllable is stressed. Yet, a considerable number of en- or endoclitics provoke the accentuation of the preceding syllable (cf. section 3.3.3 for personal agreement clitics). Some particles call for a clitic because of their inherent stress, e.g. q'a- (adh),gi- (cond), te- (neg), e.g.

téne baksà '(s)he is not'
bürmis^q'áq'un bi 'they have to give order'
campegízui 'if I would write' (also gíz campei or camgízpei)

A complex example:

báneke sa c/obán met'ái bánekei xibq'ó eg/él.sa vaxt'á sa is^én arí me eg/elg/oxó k'ic'it'úxne fu?q'pé.
he-was one shepherd whose it-was 60 sheep a time a man came this sheep-of the-small-onerobbed.
Once upon a time there was a shepherd who had 60 sheep; once a man came and robbed the youngest of these sheep.

[ba-ne-k-e sa c/oban me-t'-ai ba-ne-k-e-i xib-q'o eg/el sa vaxt'-a sa is^-en ar-i me eg/el-g/-oxo k'ic'-t'-ux-ne fu?q-p-e]
be-3sg:ec-perf one shepherd:abs prox-sa:obl-gen be-3sg:ec-perf 3-20 sheep one day-loc one man-erg come:past-aor prox sheep-pl-abl small-se:obl-dat2-3sg rob-lv-perf