The Vowel Phonemes of the Modern Kalmyk Language

The article is devoted to research into the phonological system of the Kalmyk language. Based on the advancements in modern linguistics, the principles of phoneme distinction in the Kalmyk language are proposed: the consideration of syllabic models of the contrasted words and word forms; the attention to the nature of stress and its position in the word; the influence of synharmonism on the sound organization of a Kalmyk word. The article summarizes the results of applying these principles to the analysis of the vowel system. As a result of comparing the words recorded in the Kalmyk-Russian Dictionary/Halmg-ors tol, it was found that there are 10 vowel phonemes in the Kalmyk language. The conditions for the realization of their sense-distinguishing function at the level of words and grammatical forms (phonological aspect) are determined, the realization in speech sounds (phonetic aspect) and graphic fixation (spelling aspect) are shown. It is argued that there are no long vowel phonemes in the Kalmyk language, and such a feature as length is acquired by ordinary stressed vowels. The article states the need to distinguish phonology as an independent branch in the grammar of the Kalmyk language and the necessity to improve the modern Kalmyk graphic system, which is possible only after resolving the issues of marking stressed and unstressed vowels in writing and recognizing the sounds [e] and [ъ] as vowel phonemes e and ъ.