Variation of the labiovelar approximant and the voiced labialized velar fricative in Naukan Yupik

This study reports an analysis of [w] and [ɣʷ] segments in Naukan Yupik that are variants of a single phoneme. The article presents a review of the existing literature on Naukan Yupik and other related languages as well as a primary analysis of modern audio data recorded during field trips on Naukan Yupik documentation in 2022–2023. This analysis deals with such acoustic characteristics as formant structure and frication of the segments [w] and [ɣʷ] as well as voiced velar fricatives [ɣ] and [v]. The results of the analysis confirm differences between [w] and [ɣʷ] that are observed perceptually and distinguish them from [ɣ] and [v]. Our data additionally show that [w] should be considered the main variant of the phoneme in question.