Language name: KORYAK
UPSID number: 2709
Alternate name(s):
Classification: Chukchi-Kamchatkan
This language has 21 segments
Its Frequency index is 0.394256150 (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 ? tS v jF gF m "n N "r "l lj BA i "e a+ "o u
Comment: Koryak is spoken by a few hundred people on the Kamchatka peninsula in the USSR. A vowel harmony process requires vowels in a word to belong to set 1 (i,u,e) or set 2 (e,o,a). Many transcriptions are given with a schwa vowel in Zhukova (1980) but their origin is not explained. Palatal laterals occur before most vowels but are described as "palatalized variants" of /l/. From the data available they appear contrastive. All consonants except /?/ can appear geminated.
Source(s): Zhukova, A.N. 1980. Jazyk palanskikh Korjakov. Nauka, Leningrad.

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