Noisy guttural consonants of the Teleut language in the retrospective

The paper analyzes the somatic characteristics of noisy guttural consonants in the language of modern Teleut, revealed by Magnetic Resonance Imaging. All pronouncing patterns are divided into two groups depending on the phonetic context. The variability of substant characteristics of synharmonically soft-order representatives in the parameters of active and passive speech organs is determined by positional-combinatorial conditions of their functioning: 1) in the preposition to the front vowels, guttural consonants appear as mediolingual-interlingual with an acoustic effect of moderate palatalization; 2) in the preposition to vowels of non-front - central, central-back and mixed, interlingual-backlingual or interlingual one, weakly palatalized, are used. Teleut hard-order velar-uvular consonants are represented by three types of articulations: single-focus one-active, single-focus two-active, and two-focus two-active. Comparing the results of the study of pronouncing samples, recorded in the speech of modern Teleut with articulatory settings of Teleut guttural consonants revealed by experimental phonetic methods in the 1970s, indicates the process of transformation of the Teleut articulatory base on the way of strengthening the muscular tension of the speech apparatus. System modifications are stated both in the sphere of basic and additional articulations: in contrast to the settings of the half-century retrospect, modern guttural consonants - both hard and soft are pronounced with obligatory flat-slot labialization; moreover, all hard velar-uvular settings are pharyngalized. The back-lingual and velar-uvular consonantism trends in the development of the articulatory base of Teleut coincide with the results of an earlier study of the forelingual Teleut settings, indicating the total nature of phonetic transformations.

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