Komi

Last Updated: 2020-08-01

Background

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

• Komi can be divided into three dialect groups: Komi-Zyrian, Komi-Permyak, and Yaz’va Komi. Some consider these three to be distinct languages rather than dialects (Hausenberg 1998, 305).
  • The differences between the three dialect groups are mostly related to word stress and morpheme inventories. Some phonological differences have also developed. However, the three-way distinction between Komi-Zyrian, Komi-Permyak, and Yaz’va Komi is mostly geopolitical (Hausenberg 1998, 306).
• The information here reflects the phonology of standard literary Komi, which is substantially different from that of Yaz’va Komi.
• Komi-Zyrian and Komi-Permyak each have a distant literary form (for geopolitical reasons), but they are very similar (Riese 1998, 250–51).
• Kochetov and Lobanova (2003) and Kochetov and Lobanova (2007) specifically describe Komi-Permyak. All other sources all generalized.

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	n̪			ɲ
Trills		r̪
Approximants		l̪			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

• ⟨ф⟩, ⟨х⟩, ⟨ц⟩, and ⟨щ⟩ are found in Russian loanwords (Punegova 2018, 24; Tsyponov 2015, 39).
  • According to Tsyponov (2015), ⟨щ⟩ is not realized as it is in Russian; rather it typically surfaces as [ʂ] or [ʂː] and sometimes [ʈʂ] (p. 39).
• Six graphemes can be used to represent either a dental or palatal consonant with the same manner of articulation. When one of these graphemes is followed by ⟨e⟩, ⟨ё⟩, ⟨и⟩, ⟨ю⟩, ⟨я⟩, or ⟨ь⟩ (the soft sign), this indicates the corresponding palatal phoneme. In all other instances, the grapheme is interpreted as the corresponding dental phoneme (Punegova 2018, 25–27; Tsyponov 2015, 40–41):
  • ⟨д⟩ corresponds to /d̪/ and /ɟ/.
  • ⟨з⟩ corresponds to /z̪/ and /ʑ/.
  • ⟨л⟩ corresponds to /l̪/ and /ʎ/.
  • ⟨н⟩ corresponds to /n̪/ and /ɲ/.
  • ⟨с⟩ corresponds to /s̪/ and /ɟ/.
  • ⟨т⟩ corresponds to /t̪/ and /ɕ/.
• Besides /ɘ/ and /ɨ/, all vowel phonemes can be represented by two different graphemes. Following a palatal consonant, ⟨e⟩, ⟨ё⟩, ⟨и⟩, ⟨ю⟩, and ⟨я⟩ are used. Following a non-palatal consonant, ⟨а⟩, ⟨і⟩, ⟨о⟩, ⟨у⟩, and ⟨э⟩ are used (Punegova 2018, 25–27; Tsyponov 2015, 40–41).
  • /a/ can be represented by ⟨а⟩ and ⟨я⟩.
  • /e/ can be represented by ⟨e⟩ and ⟨э⟩.
  • /i/ can be represented by ⟨і⟩ and ⟨и⟩.
  • /o/ can be represented by ⟨о⟩ and ⟨ё⟩.
  • /u/ can be represented by ⟨у⟩ and ⟨ю⟩.
• Additionally, graphemes ⟨e⟩, ⟨ё⟩, ⟨и⟩, ⟨ю⟩, and ⟨я⟩ represent a /j/-vowel sequence when not following a palatal consonant (Punegova 2018, 25–27; Tsyponov 2015, 40–41).
  • ⟨e⟩ becomes /je/.
  • ⟨ё⟩ becomes /jo/.
  • ⟨ю⟩ becomes /ju/.
  • ⟨я⟩ becomes /ja/.
• The hard sign ⟨ъ⟩ is used to indicate a lack of a palatal consonant. For example, ⟨дя⟩ would transcribe to /ɟa/, while ⟨дъя⟩ would transcribe to /dja/.

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

• Consonant gemination occurs at morpheme boundaries (Hausenberg 1998, 309).
• Where consecutive vowels (e.g. /aa/) occur, the second one must be pronounced (Punegova 2018, 27). All examples, however, are given with /aa/ in word-final positions, so it’s unclear whether this actually applies to all adjacent vowels in all positions as well.

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.