Towards a New Reconstruction of the Proto-Yeniseian Sound System. Part II: Word-Final Consonants

Abstract We present correspondence sets involving word-final consonants and including all known members of the Yeniseian language family. A systematic application of the Comparative Method to these data yields the following results: ( I ) three different correspondence sets and, accordingly, three different Proto-Yeniseian phonemes each must be assumed for both Southern Ket word-final - t and - l’ , ( II ) two different correspondence sets and, accordingly, two different Proto-Yeniseian phonemes must be assumed for Southern Ket word-final - s’ , ( III ) the data indicate that one of the two Proto-Yeniseian liquids/rhotics developed in a similar way in Kott, Arin and Pumpokol. We do not see evidence for the postulation of lateral affricates, retroflex sounds or labialised velars as assumed for Proto-Yeniseian by S. Starostin or E. J. Vajda on macro-comparative grounds. The Proto-Yeniseian phonological system that can be reconstructed using Yeniseian data alone is simpler than previously published reconstructions of the Proto-Yeniseian phoneme inventory.