The Concept of ‘Basis of Articulation’ in Russia in the First Half of the 20th Century

Abstract

Summary This article traces the development of the concept of the ‘basis of articulation’ in Russia of the first half of the 20th century, analysing in detail the major works in this area of research. In Russia this concept took a specific course of development. From the beginning it has been mainly conceived as a ‘summation of features’, distinguishing phonetic systems of different languages, however, Russian linguists tended to view it in a wider generalphonemic framework. While in the West the interest to this concept generally subsided, in Russian linguistics it was always present and remained viable and attractive particularly in the fields of the teaching of phonetics, dialectology, and language typology.