Zum Problem der Palatalisierung und Depalatalisierung aus merkmalsgeometrischer Sicht am Beispiel des Russischen

Abstract

Summary Although the theory of distinctive features, developed in SPE by Chomsky & Halle (1968) and later on reformed by Sagey (1986) and McCarthy (1988), provides a general description of phonemes from an articulatory point of view, it displays significant uncertainties when employed for Russian. These could be summarized in two points: first, which feature leads to a distinctive palatalization correlation of the phonemes and, second, which feature triggers the phonological processes of palatalization and depalatalization assimilation. In this work, these issues are discussed and clarified by means of the feature-geometric description of the two processes for Russian. Then, a differentiated description of the named phonological processes from a feature-geometric point of view is suggested and a differentiated phoneme inventory of Russian is developed.