Study of the consonant alternation system in Karelian dialectal speech by cluster analysis
English
journal number:
Journal’s Subject Headings:
Philology
About author:
Institute of Linguistics, Literature and History, Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Petrozavodsk, Russian Federation, [email protected]
ABSTRACT
Introduction: the alternation of consonant steps, which has Baltic-Finnish proto-linguistic roots and covers a third of the vocabulary of the language, plays an important role in the processes of inflection and word formation, being a fundamental feature of the Karelian morphological system. Consonant alternation is represented in the Karelian dialects (proper Karelian, Livvik, and Ludik) and their subdialects in different degree. Therefore, this phenomenon is attributed to one of the brightest markers of Karelian dialect speech.
Objective: determination of the main inter-dialect correspondences in the alternation system of consonants of the Karelian language and their areas.
Research materials: presented in the open dialect database of the Karelian language “Murreh” digitized data completed in 1937–1973. “Programs for collecting material for the Dialectological Atlas of the Karelian language.”
Results and novelty of the research: the scientific novelty lies in the application of dialectometric methods to the study of the alternation system of the Karelian language based on the big dialect data. In the course of the work, 13 clusterizations were carried out demonstrating the distribution of the members of the analyzed inter-dialect correspondences in dialects. Based on the identified isoglosses of certain types of alternation, the final clusterizationng was carried out, dividing all dialects into four groups, which can be conditionally called Livvik, Ludik, and proper Karelian, subdivided into the Northern, Southern and Padan subgroups, and transitional between adverbs. Visualization of the clusterization’s results on interactive maps made it possible to clarify the distribution areas of dialect variants of the analyzed phenomenon (primarily in the area of Central Karelia, which is a transitional zone between Karelian dialects), as well as reveal the main stages of its development.
Key words: dialectology, linguistic geography, dialectometry, cluster analysis, Karelian language, consonant gradation, consonant alternation, radical gradation, qualitative alternation
Acknowledgements: the work was carried out within the framework of budget financing of the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences (№ 121070700122-5). The author expresses the gratitude to the leading research engineer of the Institute of Applied Mathematical Research of the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences N. B. Krizhanovskaya for the development of the dialect base of the Karelian language “Murreh” with the clusterization module.
For citation: Novak I. P. Study of the consonant alternation system in Karelian dialectal speech by cluster analysis // Vestnik ugrovedenia = Bulletin of Ugric Studies. 2023; 13 (2/53): 234–245.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: the alternation of consonant steps, which has Baltic-Finnish proto-linguistic roots and covers a third of the vocabulary of the language, plays an important role in the processes of inflection and word formation, being a fundamental feature of the Karelian morphological system. Consonant alternation is represented in the Karelian dialects (proper Karelian, Livvik, and Ludik) and their subdialects in different degree. Therefore, this phenomenon is attributed to one of the brightest markers of Karelian dialect speech.
Objective: determination of the main inter-dialect correspondences in the alternation system of consonants of the Karelian language and their areas.
Research materials: presented in the open dialect database of the Karelian language “Murreh” digitized data completed in 1937–1973. “Programs for collecting material for the Dialectological Atlas of the Karelian language.”
Results and novelty of the research: the scientific novelty lies in the application of dialectometric methods to the study of the alternation system of the Karelian language based on the big dialect data. In the course of the work, 13 clusterizations were carried out demonstrating the distribution of the members of the analyzed inter-dialect correspondences in dialects. Based on the identified isoglosses of certain types of alternation, the final clusterizationng was carried out, dividing all dialects into four groups, which can be conditionally called Livvik, Ludik, and proper Karelian, subdivided into the Northern, Southern and Padan subgroups, and transitional between adverbs. Visualization of the clusterization’s results on interactive maps made it possible to clarify the distribution areas of dialect variants of the analyzed phenomenon (primarily in the area of Central Karelia, which is a transitional zone between Karelian dialects), as well as reveal the main stages of its development.
Key words: dialectology, linguistic geography, dialectometry, cluster analysis, Karelian language, consonant gradation, consonant alternation, radical gradation, qualitative alternation
Acknowledgements: the work was carried out within the framework of budget financing of the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences (№ 121070700122-5). The author expresses the gratitude to the leading research engineer of the Institute of Applied Mathematical Research of the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences N. B. Krizhanovskaya for the development of the dialect base of the Karelian language “Murreh” with the clusterization module.
For citation: Novak I. P. Study of the consonant alternation system in Karelian dialectal speech by cluster analysis // Vestnik ugrovedenia = Bulletin of Ugric Studies. 2023; 13 (2/53): 234–245.
