Kildin Saami voiceless sonorants: Phonological challenges and typological insights

Egorov, Ilya and Burov, Daniil (2026) Kildin Saami voiceless sonorants: Phonological challenges and typological insights. ACTA LINGUISTICA ACADEMICA, 73 (2). pp. 327-367. ISSN 2559-8201

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Abstract

The present paper discusses voiceless sonorants in Kildin Saami from acoustic, phonological, diachronic, and typological points of view. These sounds pose significant challenges to phonological analysis, exhibiting typical characteristics of marginal phonemes. Their status as independent phonemes relies on their ability to occur in a limited set of contexts, and in some idiolects they can be viewed as underlying clusters. History of their emergence in Kildin Saami aligns with previous typological observations about the architecture of consonant inventories allowing for voiceless sonorants to occur in a language, such as presence of voiced counterparts and systematic contrast in laryngeal settings in the language’s consonant inventory. The Kildin Saami data provide valuable insight into how historical shifts, phonological reorganization, and typological factors contribute to the emergence of rare phonemes.

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