Ryzhikova T., Dobrinina A., Morozov V., Kulikov V. (Novosibirsk, Russia)

Studying Sound Systems of Siberian Turkic Languages by the Method of Laryngoscopy (Interdisciplinary Approach)

(57th Annual Meeting of the PIAC Vladivostok, 2014)

Experimental phonetics – is a field of linguistics where there are used both purely linguistic methods of research and methods being borrowed from the other fields of sciences, mainly from medicine. Direct laryngoscopy (nowadays – figures one) is used by phonetic researchers for observing the processes in the gullet. (The first scientists who used it for the needs of phonetics were Japanese scientists Savashima and Khiros in 1968). Scientists from Laboratory of Experimental Phonetic Researches of the Institute of Philology and Literature of Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences together with colleagues from the Institute of Chemical Biology and fundamental medicine of Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science are put into practice this method for studying articulation processes in the field of larynxes since 2012. During this time there was accumulated a considerable material on the languages of various families (Turkic, Mongolian, Slavic, etc.), formulated preliminary conclusions. In particular, there were fixed peculiarities of anatomy of larynx of bearers of Turkic languages as compared with the other announcers. Besides, articulation process of Turkic languages is characterized with the work not only vocal chords but substantial activity of the organ above, especially nadgortanik (надгортаника) , the root of the tongue and the back side of the pharynx. And that is well coordinated with somatic results got earlier. There are confirmed the data of foreign colleagues on the fact that vocal chords are opened during the articulation of voiceless consonants while in the process of producing voiced consonants they are left closed. This fact could facilitate determination of voiced and voiceless components of consonant sounds.

As a whole, the method of laryngoscopy is prospective, it gives an opportunity to watch over deep processes in the mouth cavity in dynamics but not in statics, and could be carefully used in field researches that is extremely important while studying remote, isolated and difficult of access languages.

The work is done under financial support of Presidium Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (“The Competition of Interdisciplinary Integration Projects of Fundamental Researches 2012-2014, Project No21”).