This study investigates the interface between prosodic phrasing and morphosyntactic integration in incorporation structures across a range of syntactic types in Chukchi, a highly endangered polysynthetic language of the Chukotko-Kamchatkan family. The prosody of Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages has received little scholarly attention, with existing research focusing almost exclusively on segmental phonology. Incorporation is a morphosyntactic and prosodic phenomenon actively produced by only very few remaining fluent speakers, making its realization especially rare and valuable for linguistic analysis. Incorporated elements are examined for duration, intensity and pitch variation, increased susceptibility to coarticulation, and vowel reduction in comparison to their non-incorporated counterparts. Particular attention is given to how these acoustic cues signal prosodic integration across distinct morphosyntactic incorporation types, including structures with more than one incorporated dependent. The study examines 180 incorporation instances of both nominal and verbal domains. Within the nominal domain, the data include constructions with incorporated attributive noun modifiers, possessive nominals, pronominal determiners, attributive adjectives, relative clauses, and quantificational expressions. Within the verbal domain, the analysis includes incorporation of core arguments, as well as spatial and instrumental adjuncts, adverbial modifiers, temporal and causal subordinate clauses, and multi-verb serial constructions.
Karina Sheifer (2025) studied this question.