Laryngeal transmission and silent vowel epenthesis in Forest Nenets
In Forest Nenets (Samoyedic < Uralic), consonants debuccalize to the glottal stop [ʔ] in coda, losing they place, and, as I will argue, laryngeal features. The glottal stop [ʔ] is an elsewhere allophone of /ʔ/ and debuccalized obstruents appearing before vowels and non-voiceless consonants, whereas aspiration [h] appears before voiceless segments. I propose that this pattern be analyzed as laryngeal transmission (de Carvalho et al. 2026, Bendjaballah & Ségéral 2014): obstruents lose their place and laryngeal features in coda, while the following obstruent can transmit its laryngeal feature to the left.
(1) /ḿat-maʔ/ [ḿaʔmaʔ] ‘chum-POSS.1PL’
/ḿat-ta/ [ḿahta] ‘chum-POSS.3SG’
Forest Nenets has schwa, a vowel alternating with zero (Salminen 2007), traditionally represented as /°/. In stressed positions (odd and non-final syllables), it is generally pronounced as [ă], and in unstressed syllables it syncopates.
(2) /ńejaŋk°/ [ˈńedʹaŋk] ‘mosquito’
/ńejaŋk°-ta/ [ˈńedʹaŋˌkăta] ‘moquito-POSS.3SG’
The talk focuses on cases when schwa is in fact epenthetic. There are two morphemes that generally surface as [ʔ]: PL (3a) and CNG (3b). However, for obstruent-final stems, CNG is pronounced as [s] (with stem obstruent debuccalized), while PL is still [ʔ] (3c).
(3) a. [ˈkata-ʔ] ‘grandmother-PL’
b. [ˈkapta-ʔ] ‘call-CNG’
c. /ḿat-ʔ/ > ḿat°ʔ > [ˈḿat-ʔ] ‘chum-PL’
/mănæs-s/ > mănæhs° > [ˈmănæh-s] ‘see-CNG’
I propose analyzing CNG as /s/ and PL as /ʔ/. I argue that laryngeal transmission happens before debuccalization and schwa-insertion. The glottal stop /ʔ/ does not have laryngeal features (see 1), so it cannot transmit them. When laryngeal transmission has taken place, schwa cannot be inserted in that domain, so it appears after /s/.
de Carvalho, J. Brandão, Faust, N., & Lampitelli, N. (2026, January 14–16). From Oman to Georgia and back, carrying an idle glottis. Old-World Conference in Phonology (OCP23).
Bendjaballah, S., & Ségéral, P. (2014). The phonology of “idle glottis” consonants in the Mehri of Oman (Modern South Arabian). Journal of Semitic Studies, 59(1), 161–204.
Salminen, T. (2007). Notes on Forest Nenets phonology. In J. Ylikoski & A. Aikio (Eds.), Sámit, sánit, sátnehámit: Riepmočála Pekka Sammallahtii miessemánu 21. beaivve 2007 (Vol. 253). Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura
