The emergence of bunched vowels from retroflex approximants in endangered Dardic languages

Abstract

Abstract Kalasha, an endangered Dardic (Indo-Aryan) language, contrasts a rich set of rhotic vowels, a vowel type, which is found in less than 1% of the world’s languages. The acoustic and articulatory correlates of rhotic vowels, and their development and geographical distribution in Kalasha and other Indo-Iranian languages are still poorly understood. The current study brings together typological data on retroflex approximants and flaps in 192 Indo-Iranian language varieties, and phonetic data on rhotic vowels and retroflex approximants in endangered Dardic (Kalasha and Dameli) and Nuristani (Kamviri and Eastern Kataviri) languages. The phylogeography of retroflex approximants and flaps indicates that rhotic vowels are prevalent in those areas of South Asia where retroflex approximants are in abundance. Specifically, the development of rhotic vowels in Kalasha may have been amplified by the presence of retroflex approximants in neighboring Nuristani languages. We show that phonetically the rhotic sounds in the two Dardic languages are produced with a bunched tongue shape, whereas the retroflex approximants in Nuristani languages are produced with the raising of the tongue tip.