Dorsal fricatives in Ukrainian

Abstract

In this study we look closely at the set of dorsal fricatives in Ukrainian with the purpose to explain their distributional peculiarities and phonological behavior. The analysis focuses on certain phonetic characteristics and the phonological representation of the segments in question. Some other issues addressed in this study include the segmental strength which is calculated by the complexity of a segment and the presence of headed elements, the consonant-vowel interactions in which the segments in question participate and the impact of vowels on the distribution of back fricatives in Ukrainian. The main aim of this study is to propose and justify a particular phonological representation of the back fricatives in Ukrainian.