Towards a New Reconstruction of the Proto-Yeniseian Sound System. Part I: Word-Initial Consonants

Abstract

We present correspondence sets involving word-initial consonants and including all known members of the Yeniseian language family. The data can be used for a systematic application of the comparative method, implying both the reconstruction of proto-phonemes and subsequent phylogenetic research questions (intrafamilial subdivisions among the Yeniseian languages according to shared phonological innovations). Key findings include (I) the discovery of an isogloss which separates Ket, Yugh and Pumpokol from Kott, Assan and Arin in terms of word-initial labial and dental plosives (voiced in the former group, voiceless in the other) and (II) the inference that Proto-Yeniseian (PY), i.e., the last common ancestor of all Yeniseian languages, probably had a two-layered system of plain voiced and plain voiceless stops. We do not see evidence for the postulation of lateral affricates. In addition, there are three correspondences of sibilants and uvulars, respectively, but we cannot, as yet, plausibly posit proto-phonemes in these cases.