Khanty

Spoken in Western Siberia, Khanty forms the eastern half of the Ob-Ugric languages. It has usually been treated as a single language divided in many dialects, tho a division into a small family of 3-4 languages may be more appropriate. The historical phonology of Khanty has been problematic in Uralistics.

Vowels

Khanty dialects generally have a distinction between full and overshort vowels. This correlates with the long-short distinction of Mansi, and is transcribed here as geminate vs. single.

Many vowels develop different near to velar consonant, which is mark'd by <Vˠ>. Some dialects trigger labialization in following velars, markd by <Vʷ>.

Vowel↓ · Dialect→	Vax-Vasjugan	Tremjugan-Jugan	Demj-Konda	Nizjam	Kazym	Obdorsk	vs. Mansi	Notes
*uu	uu	uu	yy, uuˠ	u	u	uu	*uu ([oo]?)
*ɯɯ	ɯɯ	ɯɯ	ii, eeˠ	i	i	ii	*ɯɯ ([ɤɤ]?), *a
*ii	ii	ii	ii				*ii ([ee]?)
*yy	yy	iiʷ
*oo	oo	o, a	uu, ooˠ	uu	oo	oo	*aa, *a, *å	Zhivlov: VV & TJ /uu/ (vs. *a)
*ɔɔ	ɔɔ	oo
*ɑɑ	ɑɑ	ɒɒ	oo, ɑɑˠ	ɔɔ	ɔɔ	ɑɑ	*ɯɯ, *ɑɑ
*ee	ee	aa	ee	ee	ee	ee	*ää, *ä	Zhivlov: VV & TJ /ii/ (vs. *ä), N&K #jee-
*øø	øø	aa, ø
*ææ	ææ	aa	aa	ɑɑ	ɑɑ	aa	*ii	Sammallahti: TJ /ɒɒ/ ?
*ɶɶ	œœ	eeʷ						Zhivlov: Konda & O. /oo/ / _k
*o	o	o	ɑ	o	o	ɑ	*a, *å
*ɑ	ɑ	ɑ
*e	e	e	e	ɑ	ɑ	a	*i
*ɵ	ø	ɵ	ɵ	u	u	uu	*ü

Isoglosses

• Vowel rotation
  • *oo → o, ɑ
  • *ɔɔ → oo
  • *ɑɑ → ɒɒ
  • *ee → aa
  • *øø → aa, ø
  • *ɶɶ → ee

Proto-Khanty to Proto-DK-N-K-O

• Labiality mergers etc: *ɯɯ *yy → ii, *ɔɔ → oo, *øø → *ee, *ɶɶ → *ææ, *o → ɑ,
• subsequently *ææ → aa

DK-N-K-O to DK

• *oo → *uu

DK-N-K-O to Proto-N-K

• Long full vowels shorten: *uu *ii → u i
• Lo vowel backing: *ɑɑ → ɒɒ, *aa → ɑɑ, *a → ɑ
• In Nizjam only, *oo → uu (shared with DK)

DK-N-K-O to Obdorsk

(no change!) -->