Kryz (Alik) (Kryts)

Source: Gilles Authier. 2009. Grammaire kryz: Langue caucasique d’Azerbaïdjan, dialecte d’Alik. Paris: Peeters.

Comments: /qʲʼ/ and /kʲ/ serve to distinguish only one pair of words each. Plain (non-aspirated and non-glottalised) voiceless consonants are voiced after vowels, but voiceless word initially (/gʷ/, /q/, and /qʷ/ become voiced fricatives after vowels). /v/ is ‘practically’ in complementary distribution with /u/, but they are not treated as a single phoneme. /h/ has an epiglottal allophone, which used to be a distinct phoneme. Overall the description of consonants is inconsistent: the table of phonemes does not list all segments (all consonants with secondary articulations are missing), and the list of segments omits one sound from the table (“c”=tʃ/dʒ); a list of examples at the end of the chapter has a segment /χʷ/ not previously mentioned anywhere. /v/ is described as a fricative in the table and then again in the list of consonants, but the list of ‘Sonantes’ also has a /v/, presumably a /w/ (because sonorants are postulated not to participate in any oppositions, and /v/ is in opposition with /f/). The list of consonants therefore is not foolproof. /i/ has allophones [i] and [ɨ] in complementary distribution. /a/ is realised as [æ] near front consonants; however, in loanwords Azeri [æ] is adapted to [a]. In closed syllables, certain sequences of vowels + glides surface as rounded front vowels and /o/; the same vowels in Azeri borrowings, however, get adapted. /tʃ/ and /ɣ/ are not found in word-final position.

Contributed by: Dmitry Nikolaev (dnikolaev@fastmail.com)