LOSS OF VOWEL SOUNDS IN THE CHECHEN LANGUAGE

Abstract

The article examines features of the process of dropping vowel sounds in the modern Chechen literary language. The vocal system of the Nakh languages and mountain dialects of the Chechen language is characterized by such phonetic phenomena as contact and distance assimilation, as well as reduction of vowel phonemes. For an in-depth analysis of these processes, the author uses a wide range of dialect material, which helps to identify patterns of functioning of phonetic changes in the Chechen and Ingush languages. The collected factual material allows to accurately describe the process of vowel loss. It has been established that in the Chechen language vowels in the initial, middle and final positions of the word are subject to reduction. Linguistic material demonstrates that this process covers the structure of nouns, their declension system, dependent forms of participles, pronouns, adjectives, plural forms of nouns, as well as tense forms of verbs. In addition, the loss of vowels is actively manifested in the word formation system, although this aspect has not been fully studied in the scientific literature.