Morphology of Chuvash

This page is for analyses and organisation of materials on Chuvash. See also Morphology of Chuvash/Questions for standing questions that need attention.

Morphophonology

"Russian" nouns ending in ‹о›

noun	phonetic properties				declined forms
	ru pronunciation	[ɔ]?	σ́]	decl?	px3 form	о→ов?	gen form
пальто	[palʲˈtɔ]	Y	Y	N	пальти, пальтовӗ	N (not it he standard language but used)	пальтон
звено		Y	?	Y	звени	N	звенон
министерство		N		Y	министерстви	N	министерствӑн
барокко		N		N	барокки	N	бароккӑн
радио	[ˈradʲiɔ]	Y	N	N	радиовӗ	Y	радион
кино	[kʲiˈnɔ]	Y	Y	N	киновӗ	Y	кинон
правительство	[praˈvʲitʲɪlstva]	N	N	Y	правительстви	N
дело	[ˈdʲela]	N	N	Y	дели	N

"Russian" nouns ending in ‹у›

noun	phonetic properties		declined forms
	stressed ending vowel?	decl?	px3 form	gen form
кенгуру	Y	N	кенгурӑвӗ	кенгурун
Турку	N	N	Турки	Туркӑн

It must be said that:

• These forms are very seldom used.
• There are different opinions about кенгуру. We finally got the one of the Chuvash orthographic dictionary, which is becoming our main reference.
• There is not any discussion about the unstressed у form. We used the form for such "Russian" words with unstressed back vowels as министерство, барокко (вето, гетто, евро, эсперанто...) and литература, whose endings differ only in the "dictionary" form.

Archiphonemes

{ӗ}

realisation  environment        examples
-----------  -----------        --------
ӗ            after consonants   вӑкӑр>{ӗ}{н}:вӑкӑрӗ
0            before dative      вӑкӑр>{ӗ}{н}>{н}{А}:вӑкӑрна
и            ~after vowels      кӳл{ː}ӗ>{ӗ}{н}:кӳлли
                                кӗнеке>{ӗ}{н}:кӗнеки
                                каҫма>{ӗ}{н}:каҫми
             after {ː}          йӗп{ː}>{ӗ}{н}:йӗппи
             ~after CCо         пальто>{ӗ}{н}:пальти


triggers front vowel harmony even when 0
   склад>{ӗ}{н}>{Т}{А}н:склачӗнчен
   ҫын{ː}>{ӗ}{н}>{н}{А}:ҫыннине
   вӑкӑр>{ӗ}{н}>{н}{А}:вӑкӑрне
triggers т|д → ч _ when present
   ҫурт>{ӗ}{н}:ҫурчӗ
   склад>{ӗ}:склачӗ
triggers у|ӳ|о → ӑв|ӗв|ов _ even when 0, only after single consonant
   ту>{ӗ}{н}:тӑвӗ
   ту>{ӗ}{н}>{н}{А}:тӑвна
   пӳ>{ӗ}{н}>{н}{А}:пӗвне
   кино>{ӗ}{н}:киновӗ
triggers gemination _ in geminate roots
   пул{ː}ӑ>{ӗ}{н}:пулли
   йӗп{ː}>{ӗ}{н}:йӗппи
triggers ь:и _
   кӗсье>{ӗ}{н}:кӗсйи