Dialectal variation of duration patterns in Finnmark North Sámi quantity.

Area of Science:

• Phonetics and Phonology
• Linguistic Anthropology
• Endangered Languages

Background:

• Ternary length contrast is a rare phonological feature.
• North Sámi, a Fenno-Ugric language, possesses a ternary quantity contrast.
• This contrast is hypothesized to involve progressive consonant lengthening and compensatory vowel shortening.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the phonetic realization of the ternary quantity contrast in North Sámi.
• To compare the contrast's realization across Western and Eastern Finnmark dialects.
• To examine potential language change in the ternary quantity contrast based on speaker age.

Main Methods:

• Phonetic analysis of speech recordings from North Sámi speakers.
• Comparison of durational properties of vowels and consonants across dialects.
• Age-based comparison of phonetic realizations to identify language change.

Main Results:

• The contrast between short and long quantities is robust across dialects.
• Durational differences between the two longer quantities are maintained only in the Eastern dialect.
• A dialect-independent vowel quantity contrast exists in the Western dialect.
• Younger speakers show evidence of neutralization of the ternary contrast.

Conclusions:

• The ternary quantity contrast in North Sámi is realized differently across dialects.
• Phonetic evidence suggests an ongoing language change, with younger speakers neutralizing the contrast.
• This rare phonological feature may be disappearing in Finnmark North Sámi.