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>.

Vowel↓ · Dialect→	Vax-Vasyugan	Tremjugan-Jugan	Demj-Konda	Nizjam	Kazym	Obdorsk	vs. Mansi
*uu	uu	uu	uu	u	u	uu	*uu ([oo]?)
*ɯɯ	ɯɯ	ɯɯ	ii, eeˠ	i	i	ii	*ɯɯ ([ɤɤ]?), *a
*ii	ii	ii	ii				*ii ([ee]?)
*yy	yy
*oo	oo	o, a	uu	uu	oo	oo	*aa, *a, *å
*ɔɔ	ɔɔ	oo
*ɑɑ	ɑɑ	ɒɒ	oo	ɒɒ	ɒɒ	ɑɑ	*ɯɯ, *ɑɑ
*ee	ee	aa	ee	ee	ee	ee	*ää, *ä
*øø	øø	aa, ø
*ææ	ææ	ɒɒ	aa	ɑɑ	ɑɑ	aa	*ii
*ɶɶ	œœ	ee
*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

Proto-Khanty to VV

Generally unchanged, save for the following purely phonetic changes:

• ɵ → ø
• ɶɶ → œœ

Proto-Khanty to TJ

• *yy → ii (shared with DK~O)
• *ææ → ɑɑ
• 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!)