Status of Intervocalic [kː] and [tː] in the Phonological System of the Teleut Language

This article deals with the consonant phonemes /kː/~/k/ and /tː/~/t/ of the Teleut language in the intervocalic position. These sounds were contrasted as long and short ones in the previous studies. The paper offers a brief review of works on the formation and development of the Turkic consonantism and the problem of long consonants in the ancient and modern Turkic languages. The author focuses on the relevance of the short – long opposition for the Teleut stop consonants in the intervocalic position and makes an assumption that their length depends on their position and morphonology. The Turkic languages have two non-mutually exclusive types of consonant length: the qualitative length of voiceless consonants caused by aspiration and the quantitative length of the geminates caused by the extended closure. The research involved a Praat comparative analysis of sonograms of lexical stimuli that illustrated the length of [k] and [t] in intervocalic positions. The preliminary conclusion is that Teleut stops [k] and [t] are contrasted according to their voicing, while the length opposition seems to be a less significant discriminating feature. The sonogram also proved their voicing.