The mystery of word-final obstruent voicing in Lower Luga Ingrian (Finnic) and how genetics might help

Natalia Kuznetsova (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan)

12.01.2026, 14:15–15:45
Geschw.-Scholl-Pl. 1 (Hauptgebäude), A 016

https://lmu-munich.zoom-x.de/j/93938720682?pwd=ZnRCV1JnL2w4SVdvMHlCTEtWL2NjZz09
Meeting ID: 939 3872 0682
Passcode: 284661

 

The possibility of obstruents becoming voiced word-finally has sparked a conceptual debate between proponents of Universal Grammar and Evolutionary Phonology. The former consider the process impossible (Kiparsky 2006, 2008; Schwartz & Ulfsbjorninn 2025), while the latter view it as rare but fundamentally possible (Blevins 2004: 108-10, 2006a, 2006b; Blevins, Egurtzegi & Ullrich 2020). The debate primarily focuses on identifying examples of word-final obstruent voicing and challenging or reinterpreting these cases. This talk explores a potential new instance of word-final obstruent voicing in the Lower Luga dialect of the vanishing Ingrian language (Finnic). This dialect distinguishes itself from the other three Ingrian dialects as a contact variety formed between two closely related Finnic languages, Ingrian and Votic (Muslimov 2005; Rozhanskiy 2010), with the voicing likely resulting from Votic influence. An in-depth discussion of Lower Luga Ingrian and Votic cases will be followed by an exploration of the possible origins of this phenomenon in Votic. The available data on ancient and modern Votic DNA (Agdzhoyan et al. 2024; Saag et al. 2019; Stas’uk, Mustafin & Alborova 2020) will be taken into account in this discussion.

 

Agdzhoyan, Anastasia, Ponomarev, Georgy, Pylev, Vladimir, Autleva (Kagazezheva), Zhaneta, Gorin, Igor, Evsyukov, Igor, Pocheshkhova, Elvira, et al. 2024. The Finnic peoples of Russia: genetic structure inferred from genome-wide and Y-chromosome data. Genes 15(12): 1610, https://doi.org/10.3390/genes15121610

Blevins, Juliette. 2004. Evolutionary Phonology: The Emergence of Sound Patterns. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Blevins, Juliette. 2006a. A theoretical synopsis of Evolutionary Phonology. Theoretical Linguistics 32(2): 117-66, https://doi.org/10.1515/TL.2006.009

Blevins, Juliette. 2006b. Reply to commentaries. Theoretical Linguistics 32(2): 245-56, https://doi.org/10.1515/TL.2006.017

Blevins, Juliette, Egurtzegi, Ander & Ullrich, Jan. 2020. Final obstruent voicing in Lakota: phonetic evidence and phonological implications. Language 96(2): 294-337, https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2020.0022

Kiparsky, Paul. 2006. The Amphichronic Program vs. Evolutionary Phonology. Theoretical Linguistics 32(2), https://doi.org/10.1515/TL.2006.015

Kiparsky, Paul. 2008. Universals constrain change; Change results in typological generalizations. In Linguistic universals and language change, Jeff Good (ed), 23-53. Oxford: Oxford University Press, https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199298495.003.0002

Muslimov, Mehmed Zakirovič. 2005. Jazykovyje kontakty v Zapadnoj Ingermanlandii (nižnee tečenije reki Lugi). Diss. ...kand. filol. nauk, Sankt-Peterburg: Institut lingvističeskih issledovanij RAN.

Rozhanskiy, Fedor. 2010. Ižorskij jazyk: problema opredelenija granic v uslovijah jazykovogo kontinuuma [The Ingrian language: a problem of defining boundaries in the context of a language continuum]. Voprosy jazykoznanija 1: 74-93.

Saag, Lehti, Laneman, Margot, Varul, Liivi, Malve, Martin, Valk, Heiki, Razzak, Maria A., Shirobokov, Ivan G., et al. 2019. The arrival of Siberian ancestry connecting the Eastern Baltic to Uralic speakers further east. Current Biology 29(10): 1701-1711.e16, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.04.026

Schwartz, Geoffrey & Ulfsbjorninn, Shanti. 2025. Reconciling the debate about final obstruent voicing: the phonology of Lakota obstruent lenition. In Rarities in phonetics and phonology: evolutionary, structural, typological, and social dimensions [Topics in Phonological Diversity 5], Natalia Kuznetsova, Cormac Anderson & Shelece Easterday (eds), 219-48. Berlin: Language Science Press.

Stas’uk, Ivan Vadimovič, Mustafin, Haris Harrasovič & Alborova, Irina Eduardovna. 2020. “Slav’anskaja kolonizacija” Vodskoj zemli: istoriografija, problemy, novyje podhody. Stratum plus 5: 347-61.