High Central Vowels in Polish, Ukrainian and Russian

Abstract The paper reports the results of an articulatory 3D/4D ultrasound study showing the variation in the production of corresponding high central(ized) unrounded vowels of Polish, Russian and Ukrainian. We provide qualitative descriptions of the articulation and quantitative analyses of the vowels, compared across the three languages, and compared with the other high vowels in the respective languages. In the analysis, we focus on the position of the dorsum and the tongue root. The Russian ‘central’ vowel (transcribed often as [ɨ]) is most often realized in our sample with a back position of the dorsum and a relatively fronted tongue root position. The corresponding Polish vowel (also transcribed often as [ɨ]) shows a fronted dorsum, though it is centralized in comparison to /i/. The corresponding Ukrainian central(ized) vowels (transcribed in Pompino Marschall, Steriopolo & Żygis 2016 as [ɪ]) shows a lot of variation but the dorsum usually is more retracted than in Polish and less than in Russian. The Russian vowel /ɨ/ shows systematic grooving along the center of the tongue in the tongue root area, indicating a strong involvement of the tongue root musculature. Such a grooving is inconsistent in Ukrainian speakers and minimal in Polish. In general, we observe that functionally corresponding vowels in closely related languages may differ in articulation, which may have an impact on the phonological systems of the languages.