Chapter 157Sakhalin Final Consonants and Vowel Length
Final-stop correspondences, suffix alternations, added vowels after r, and the competing histories of length and accent.
157.1 Final stops and their Sakhalin counterparts
In many Sakhalin varieties, Hokkaido syllable-final p, t, k correspond to h after a, e, o, u and to s after i. Tangiku describes this as final-stop change followed by h > s after i. Thus Hokkaido tek ‘hand’ corresponds to west-coast teh, and sik ‘eye’ to sis Tangiku (2022: §§2.2–2.3).
The geographic qualification matters. Stops remain in some northern east-coast varieties and around Tarantomari on the central west coast. Tangiku also reports an Esutoru distinction between final -is and -ih. A single Sakhalin form therefore cannot represent every locality Tangiku (2022: §2.3).
157.2 Alternations within a paradigm
A stop can surface before a vowel-initial suffix even where the independent word ends in h. These alternations connect the geographic correspondence to the grammar of individual words Tangiku (2022: §§2.3, 4.1).
| Independent form | Suffixed form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| teh | tek-ihi | hand; someone's hand |
| otoh | otop-ihi | hair; someone's hair |
| itah | itak-an | speak; we speak |
‘We speak.’
Tangiku 2022: §2.3; Sakhalin (cited for contrast)
Tangiku's grammatical illustration, printed itak-an. The suffix can express plural first-person reference in Sakhalin; its distribution differs from the Saru paradigm.
The possessive suffix is not uniformly -ihi. Tangiku also gives sapa-ha ‘head’, ram-uhu ‘heart’, and imi-yehe ‘clothes’ in affiliative forms. Vowel choice and the behavior of the stem belong to the noun's paradigm Tangiku (2022: §4.1).
157.3 Final r follows a different pattern
Final r commonly gains a following vowel: Hokkaido nukar ‘see’ corresponds to nukara, and kisar ‘ear’ to kisaru. The added vowel often repeats the preceding one, but lexical exceptions occur Tangiku (2022: §2.4).
Suffixes reveal different ordering relations. Tangiku analyzes kon-te ‘give’ from kor ‘have’ with causative formation before vowel addition and r > n before t. Plural koro-hci instead contains the added vowel before the plural suffix. The surface shape of an independent word thus does not predict every derived form Tangiku (2022: §2.4).
157.4 Vowel length and historical interpretation
Sakhalin long vowels frequently correspond to accented Hokkaido vowels: Tangiku compares kaani with káni ‘metal’, and seeseh with sések ‘hot’. Length also alternates within Sakhalin, as in kii ‘do’ and plural ki-hci. The phonemic interpretation of length remains disputed Tangiku (2022: §§2.1, 2.5).
These facts do not establish that loss of a final stop automatically lengthens the preceding vowel. Final-consonant correspondences, suffix alternations, and length–accent correspondences each require their own evidence. Itabashi reconstructs ancestral length and pitch, while Satō argues for secondary length in examples including tuuki ‘sake cup’ and independent nii ‘tree’ Itabashi (2001: 98–101); Bugaeva (2022: Satō, chapter 3, §5.1). The wider alternatives are compared in Chapter 156 (Proto-Ainu Reconstruction: Segments and Prosody).