On Initial Vowel Doubling in St. Lawrence Island Yupik

Abstract

St. Lawrence Island Yupik has a peculiar phonological process which I call initial vowel doubling in this paper : when a stem having the shape of (C1)VC2 ɨ(C3)- (C3=velar fricative) is followed by a suffix and made into the sequence (C1)VC2ɨCV… in the derivational process, the initial vowel of the stem is lengthened, doubled, to be precise, with the deletion of ɨ into the shape (C1)ViViC2CV… The purpose of this paper is to examine this process and its conditioning factors from the data that I have obtained through my fieldwork and to explain it as a prosodic process. When initial vowel doubling occurs, the underlined consonant of the sequence (C1)ViViC2CV… is velar consonants : k, q, ɣ, ɣ, x, x, ŋ. SLI Yupik is an iambic stress language where a foot consists of either an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one or a heavy stressed syllable itself. However, SLI Yupik is not as typically iambic as has been claimed. As far as the vowel /ɨ/ is concerned, SLI Yupik shows deviations from typical iambic stress. There is a tendency to avoid stress on /ɨ/ of a light syllable Cɨ. The reason may be that the foot I(C)V(C).Cɨl is not ideal for forming an iambic foot. The words that start with the stems (C1)VC2 ɨ(C3)- are stressed on the second syllable C2ɨ(C). When this second syllable of the words is open C2ɨ and the following syllable starts with a velar consonant, initial vowel doubling occurs. Because an open light syllable Cɨ in the head position of an iambic foot is not preferable, there is a tendency to avoid stressed Cɨ. An unstressed Cɨ is followed by a stressed syllable to form an iambic foot. Also the preceding syllable needs to be stressed. When a stem having the shape of (C1)VC2 ɨ(C3)- is followed by a suffix and made into the sequence (C1)VC2ɨCV…, C2ɨ is supposed to be the head of a foot. But this is not preferable for the head of an iambic foot. Therefore, it can be assumed that unstressed C2ɨ causes the preceding syllable stressed. When the first syllable is stressed, it needs to be a heavy syllable. Furthermore, unstressed vowel /ɨ/ tends to be deleted. It is possible to say that maintaining the iambic prosody causes the loss of the unstressed vowel /ɨ/ and induces compensatory lengthening to make the initial stressed syllable heavy.