Ukrainian "/h/"

[Tom Priestly]

Please, Ukrainianists with expertise in phonetics, reply off list:

I have taught Russian phonetics for many years but for the first time - due
to staff attrition - have, at rather short notice, to teach Ukrainian
phonetics. Had I had more notice, I would perhaps not have had this urgent
question:

I am having real trouble with one sound - the one symbolized by the
Cyrillic letter "g" and usually referred to as the Ukrainian voiced /h/.

All Ukrainian-origin reference works from at least 1969 on that I have
seen, including those printed in the 1990s, refer to this as a voiced
pharyngeal fricative, and describe it as such. E.g., Tots'ka in 1981:
"Artykuljacyja , , , vidbuvajet'sja pri zblyzhenni zadnjoji stinky hlotky
(farynksa) z korenem jazyka."

And yet
(a) works on general articulatory phonetics suggest that this is very
unlikely. Ladefoged in 1982 makes it clear that pharyngeal fricatives (and
even  pharyngeal approximants) are rare. He cites Arabic and other Semitic
languages only.
(b) Shevelov, in the Ukrainian chapter in the Comrie/Corbett *Slavonic
Languages*, labels it as a "laryngeal fricative" but says nothing further.
Note, LA- not PHA-. If he is correct, it is what is usually called an
(ordinary) "voiced h".
(c) When I ask a native Ukrainian speaker (from Ukraine) to say, e.g., the
word for "mountain", she definitely does NOT produce an Arabic-type
pharyngeal fricative. However, her consonant is also not precisely a voiced
variety of my own "voiceless h". It seems to have what may be some
secondary articulation, with even a tinge of a voiced *velar* fricative. (I
have yet to widen my circle of informants: perhaps she has some kind of
local accent which accounts for the latter tinge?)

My question:
May I be correct is supposing that the proper description of this sound is:

-> A voiced "h" (i.e, a sound produced in the larynx) with secondary
pharyngealization? <-

This will explain, perhaps, how the traditional and apparently erroneous
description given by, e.g., Tots'ka above, came into being. It may have
thus been handed down as another example of a linguistic myth (like the one
about "Eskimo" [Inuit] words for snow.)

If this guess is right, then Merseyside-accented English-speakers (and
especially females, who I believe tend to voice their "h"'s) should be able
to produce this kind of "h" better than most other non-Ukrainians.

To save everyone else's time, please, Ukrainianists with expertise in
phonetics - especially those from Liverpool (UK) and surrounding areas, if
any! - reply off list.

Thanks in advance,

Tom Priestly

Tom Priestly
Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies
Division of Slavic and East European Studies
200 Arts Building, University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E6
phone (780) 492-5688
fax (780) 492-9106
e-mail: tom.priestly at ualberta.ca