Language name: |
ITELMEN |
UPSID number: |
2710 |
Alternate name(s): |
KAMCHADAL |
Classification: |
Chukchi-Kamchatkan |
This language has |
32 segments |
Its Frequency index is |
0.292890798 (average percentage of segments; 0.1: many very rare segments; 0.39: average; 0.7: many common segments) |
The language has these sounds: |
p
"t
k
q
?
p'
"t'
k'
q'
tS
"ts'
P
x
X
B
jF
gF
"s
"z
hlFJ
lFJ
m
"n
"nJ
N
"r
l
i
"e
a+
"o
u
|
Comment: |
Itelmen is spoken by some older speakers on the west coast of the Kamchatka peninsula, USSR. Volodin (1976) describes a limited vowel harmony system based on height, /i,u/ -> /e,o/ and /e/ -> /a/ when a low(er) vowel follows. Glottal stop is largely found at morpheme boundaries. Several phonetic descriptions are vague; /a/ may be central or front, the lateral fricatives might not be actually fricative, the alveolar ejective affricate might be be palato-alveolar (it is described as contrasting with /tS/ by being non-palatalized). |
Source(s): |
Volodin, A.P. 1976. Itel'menskij Jazyk. Nauka, Leningrad. |