Beschreibung:
<jats:p>In the phonological descriptions of a number of Caucasian languages appears a “weak” vs. “strong” contrast for otherwise voiceless obstruents, which was previously described as a lenis-fortis contrast, but recently attributed as geminate. Hence, we investigate field and lab data from the Gigatli dialect of Chamalal (CJI), a language belonging to the Andic branch of Avar-Andic-Tsezic group in the Nakh-Dagestanian family, spoken in Dagestan (Russian Federation). The weak-strong contrast in Chamalal involves glottalic and pulmonic fricatives at the same place of articulation. Concretely the series of central alveolar sibilant fricatives (/s/, /sː/, and /sː’/) is focused, of which all can occur in initial position. Sagittal ultrasound-articulatography of one female speaker demonstrates wide consistency in place of articulation of the tongue tip, although differences in pre-dorsal curvatures between /sː’/ and /s, sː/ are observed. The acoustic data are based on word list elicitations of six speakers (two males/four females): the ejectives show pronounced central envelope peaks and highest intensity slopes of the following vowel, but take a middle position in duration. Two distant peaks are frequently observed in the longer envelopes of “strong” /sː/. /s/ and /sː’/ differ strongest for (&gt;2kHz) weighted COG, whereas /sː/ ranges widely in between.</jats:p>