Last Updated: 2020-08-01

Background

Language Family: Uralic / Finno-Ugric / Finno-Permic / Permic

Phonology

Consonants

  • The documentation seems to vary in terms of the place of articulation for consonants, especially concerning the retroflex, alveopalatal, and palatal consonants. Hausenberg (1998) only identifies postalveolar consonants (p. 309); however, this is a broad category that includes both the retroflex and alveopalatal places of articulation, so I have chosen to follow the more specific analyses done by Kochetov and Lobanova (2003) (p. 2721).
Place of Articulation
Manner of Articulation Labial Dental Retroflex Alveopalatal Palatal Velar
Stops p b t̪ d̪ c ɟ k ɡ
Affricates ʈʂ ɖʐ tɕ dʑ
Fricatives v s̪ z̪ ʂ ʐ ɕ ʑ
Nasals m ɲ
Trills
Approximants j ʎ
Note: For phonemes that share a cell, those on the left are voiceless, whereas those on the right are voiced. Both palatal approximants are voiced, but the one on the right is lateral.

Vowels

Front Central Back
High i ɨ u
Mid e ɘ o
Low a

Alphabet

Grapheme Phoneme Comment
а /a/
б /b/
в /v/
г /ɡ/
д /d̪/; /ɟ/ /ɟ/: preceding ⟨e⟩, ⟨ё⟩, ⟨и⟩, ⟨ю⟩, ⟨я⟩, or ⟨ь⟩
e /e/; /je/ /e/: following a consonant (marks the preceding consonant as palatal)
ё /o/; /jo/ /o/: following a consonant (marks the preceding consonant as palatal)
ж /ʐ/
з /z̪/; /ʑ/ /ʑ/: preceding ⟨e⟩, ⟨ё⟩, ⟨и⟩, ⟨ю⟩, ⟨я⟩, or ⟨ь⟩
и /i/ following a consonant (marks the preceding consonant as palatal)
і /i/
й /j/
к /k/
л /l̪/; /ʎ/ /ʎ/: preceding ⟨e⟩, ⟨ё⟩, ⟨и⟩, ⟨ю⟩, ⟨я⟩, or ⟨ь⟩
м /m/
н /n̪/; /ɲ/ /ɲ/: preceding ⟨e⟩, ⟨ё⟩, ⟨и⟩, ⟨ю⟩, ⟨я⟩, or ⟨ь⟩
о /o/
ӧ /ɘ/
п /p/
р /r̪/
с /s̪/; /ɕ/ /ɕ/: preceding ⟨e⟩, ⟨ё⟩, ⟨и⟩, ⟨ю⟩, ⟨я⟩, or ⟨ь⟩
т /t̪/; /c/ /c/: preceding ⟨e⟩, ⟨ё⟩, ⟨и⟩, ⟨ю⟩, ⟨я⟩, or ⟨ь⟩
у /u/
ф /f/ appears in loanwords
х /x/ appears in loanwords
ц /ts/ appears in loanwords
ч /tɕ/
ш /ʂ/
щ /ʂ/ appears in loanwords
ъ hard sign: marks the preceding consonant as non-palatal
ы /ɨ/
ь soft sign: marks the preceding consonant as palatal
э /e/
ю /u/; /ju/ /u/: following a consonant (marks the preceding consonant as palatal)
я /a/; /ja/ /a/: following a consonant (marks the preceding consonant as palatal)
Digraph
дж /ɖʐ/
дз /dʑ/
тш /ʈʂ/

Misc. Rules

References

Hausenberg, Anu-Reet. 1998. “The Uralic Languages.” In, edited by Daniel Abondolo, 305–26. Routledge.

Kochetov, Alexei, and Alevtina Lobanova. 2003. “Place and Manner Contrasts in Komi-Permyak Obstruents: An Acoustic Study.” In Proceedings of the 15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences.

———. 2007. “Komi-Permyak Coronal Obstruents: Acoustic Contrasts and Positional Variation.” Journal of the International Phonetic Association 37 (01). Cambridge University Press (CUP): 51. doi:10.1017/s0025100306002805.

Punegova, Galina Vasil’evna. 2018. Komi Yazyk: Uchebnik Dlya Spo. Izdatel’stvo Yurait.

Riese, Timothy. 1998. “The Uralic Languages.” In, edited by Daniel Abondolo, 249–75. Routledge.

Tsyponov, E.A. 2015. Bidza Olan, Komi Kyv!: Uchebnik Komi Yazyka Dlya Vzroslykh. Izdatel’stvo Kola.