This article discusses the phonology of the Chukchi language. The Chukchi language, also known as Chukot or Luorawetlan,^[1] is a language spoken by around 5 thousand people^[2] in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. The endonym of the Chukchi language is Ԓыгъоравэтԓьэн йиԓыйиԓ (Lyg'"orawetl'en Jilyjil),^[3] pronounced as [ɬəɣˀorawetɬˀɛn jiɬəjiɬ]. Chukchi is in the Chukotko-Kamchatkan family, and thus is closely related to Koryak, Kerek, Alyutor, and more distantly related to Itelmen, Southern Kamchadal, and Eastern Kamchadal.

Vowels

Source:^[4]

Generally, Chukchi is noted to have 5 or 6 distinct vowels, with /e₁/ and /e₂/ being identical in pronunciation but behaving differently in the language. A similar occurrence exists in Yup'ik Eskimo. Chukchi phonotactics are (C)V(C).

Phonetic notes:

• /e₁/ and /e₂/ are identical in pronunciation, but behave differently in vowel harmony.
• Word finally /e₁/ and /a/ reduce to a schwa, while other vowels may get dropped.

Vowel Harmony

Chukchi is notable for its vowel harmony based on vowel height, with /i/, /u/, and /e₁/ belonging to the recessive group and /e₂/, /o/, and /a/ belonging to the dominant group. The three-vowel pairs alternate with each other and cannot cooccur within a word.

Consonants

Chukchi has 13 consonants. The language lacks voiced stops, which are only found in loanwords.

• [ɸ, x, ɻ̊, j̊] are heard as allophones of /β, ɣ, ɻ, j/ after voiceless stops.^[5]
• /ɻ/ is mostly heard as an alveolar trill [r], when in between vowels.^[6]
• /s/ is phonetically [s~t͡ʃ] in free variation.
• /t͡ʃ/ becomes [s] before /q/.
• /s/, /t͡ʃ/ and /ɻ/ have different distributions between men's and women's dialects.^[7]

There is also a supersegmental glottalisation realised as a glottal stop preceding a vowel. It is not treated as a consonant as a result of phonotactics and reduplication patterns.