Dufon [oa] in the Karaidel Dialect of the Northwestern Dialect of the Bashkir Language

This article examines the articulatory-acoustic features of the vowel type [a] of the Karaidel dialect of the Bashkir language. The study's relevance arises from the fact that the phonetic system of the Bashkir language has so far been described mainly based on the researcher's observations and auditory perception. In this context, we are faced with the task of determining the characteristics of phonemes and their allophones with the help of modern recordings in WAV format and using new techniques and computer programs. The study aims to present a detailed analysis of the quality of the vowel type [a] in monosyllabic lexemes in anlaut and medial positions in the Karaidel dialect of the northwestern dialect of the Bashkir language. The novelty of the work lies in the fact that, for the first time, the experimental acoustic method is used to describe the vowel phoneme [a]. The work is based on expedition recordings made by the author in 2022–2023 in the settlements of the Karaidel region in the Republic of Bashkortostan. The recording and decoding were carried out using a unique phonetic technique. The acoustic analysis was carried out using the Speech Analyzer 3.0.1 computer program. The description follows the methodology used in the Laboratory for Experimental Phonetic Research named after. V. M. Nadelyaev Institute of Philology SB RAS. In the main part of the article, an analysis of the vowel [a] in anlaut (VC) and inlaut (CVC) positions in such monosyllabic words as ay 'moon, month,' may 'butter, fat' and mal 'cattle' in the pronunciation of four informants are presented. Previous Bashkir researchers classified the variant of the phoneme [a] in these positions in Karaidel and other dialects of the northwestern dialect of the Bashkir language as labialized 'a°' or as 'o' with the element 'a'. According to our experimental phonetic studies, the vowel 'a' at the beginning of words and in the first closed syllables was recorded as a complex two-component sound 'oa,' called a dufon (by N.S. Urtegeshev), which consists of two elements: the first is a guttural-rounded type 'o', and the second is a gutturalunrounded type 'a'.

Bashkir language, Karaidel subdialect, two-component vowel sound, dufon, allophone