Proto-Uralic

Fully a work in progress. Mistakes may occur.

Abbreviations used on these pages: B. = Baltic, Cf. = 'compare', En = Enets, Er. = Erźa, Es. = Estonian, F. = Finnish, Gmc = Germanic, H. = Hungarian, Hi. = Hill Mari, IA = Indo-Aryan, IE = Indo-European, II = Indo-Iranian, K. = Komi, Ka. = Kamass, Kh. = Khanty, Li. = Livonian, Ma. = Mari, Me. = Meadow Mari, Mk. = Mokša, Mo. = Mordvinic, Ms. = Mansi, N = North, Ne. = Nenets, Ng. = Nganasan, P. = Permic, PU = Proto-Uralic, S. = Samic / South, Se. = Selkup, Smy. = Samoyedic, U. = Udmurt, Ve. = Veps, Võ. = South Estonian (Võro)

Now with a blog! NB: New URL

Development

• Sound changes to Finnish
• Sound changes to Proto-Samic
• Sound changes to Proto-Samoyedic

Data subpages

In the vowel tables, bold marks vocalic irregularities, italic uncertainties in what the regular vocalic reflex is, red consonantal irregularities.

Close	*i • *ü	*ï? • *u
Mid	*e ~ *ê ~ *E	*o ~ *ô ~ *O
Open	*ä	*a, *ë

Known derivativs with

• -kA
• -mA
• -tA

Potential derivativs • Cluster issues • Co-occurrence of coronals • West-East discrepancies

Reconstructed phoneme inventory

Vowels

*/i ü u e ë o ä a/ in the initial syllable. Only a two-way height-based contrast */I A/ is normally reconstructed in later syllables, which may have been realized as [i æ] after front vowels and [ɯ ɑ] after back vowels (ie. with vowel harmony); or as unalternating [ə a]. (That *-i fails to cause palatalization anywhere outside of Finnic seems like a good argument against an original close front value.) These pages will use the notation *a~*ä, *ə. A couple family terms suggest different vowels, including *nato "brother's wife", *kälü "spouse's sister", *wäŋü/*wiŋü "son-in-law".

It is furthermore unclear if (1st-syllable) *ë was [ɯ] or [ɤ], and *a [ɑ] or [ɒ], but substitution of Indo-Iranian *a by *ë in loans suggests the latter values (unless these particular words are newer loans.)

Two "reduced" or "semi-rounded" vowels */ê ô/ have been proposed recently.

Consonants

Nasals */m n ń ŋ/, voiceless stops/affricates */p t ć č k/, voiceless sibilants */s ś š/, a "laryngeal" *x (likely a voiceless velar fricativ & a recent pre-Uralic split from *k), two "spirants" */ð ðʲ/, two liquids */l r/ and two semivowels */w j/.

*ć (as distinct from *ś?) and *š (as original Proto-Uralic?) are reconstructed less securely than the other consonants. A palatal liquid *ĺ is also found in old reconstructions, but the etyma involved do not really behave (they may be late inter-branch loans). The "palatal spirant" may be the actual palatal liquid; obstruent reflexes are limited to western branches, and external comparisions generally involve laterals. The dental spirant, while also merging with *l in most branches, is however certainly distinct.

A notable distributional feature was that *ŋ, *x and probably also *ð, *r could not occur word-initially.

Roots generally had the form (C)V(C)C{A I}, with initial stress; in pronouns and prepositions and the copula also CV; and a single lone-V root, the negativ verb *e-

Basic consonant correspondences (gradation not included in Finno-Samic, asterisks for Mari and Mordvinic largely superfluous):

C	Finnic	S.	Mordv.	Mari	Permic	Hung.	Ms.	Kh.	Smy.	Comments
*m	*m	*m	*m, *v	*m	*m	m, -v-	*m	*m	*m	Sporadic lenition in Mo, H. Regular in suffixes in H.
*n	*n	*n	*n, *ń- / _F	*n, *-ń- / F_F	*n	n	*n	*n	*n
*ń		*ń	*ń, *n- /#_B		*ń	ń	*ń	*ń	*ń
*-ŋ	*v, *ː	*ŋ	*j / F_, *v / B_	*ŋ	ń / F_, n / C_, m / B_	g	*ŋk	*ŋk	*ŋ	Irregularly split in ObU (the more general development is *ŋk) Retained in some Erzya & Udmurt dialects
							*ŋ	*ŋ
*w		*v	*v	*w	*v	v	*w	*w	*w
*-w-				*j / F_, ∅ / B_	∅	*v → -ː-	*ɣ	*ɣ	∅
*-x-	*ː	*k	*j
*-k-	*k		*j, *v							Mo. split by vowel backness/frontness
*k			k	*k	*k, *g	k, h /_B	*k	*k	*k	Stop voicing irregularly split in P.
*p	*p	*p	*p, *-v-	*p, *-w-	*p, *b	f, -v-	*p	*p	*p
*č	*t, *h	*c	*č	*č	*č, *dž	č, š	*š	*č	*č
*ć	*s	*č	*ś, *-ć-	*ć, *-ź-	*ć, *dź	č, s	*ć, *s	*ć, *s	*s
*ś			ś, -ź-	*š, -ž-	*ś, *-ź-	*s, *š	s	*s
*s		*s	*s, *-z-		*s, *-z-	∅	*t	*ɬ	*t
*š	*h		*š, *-ž-		*š, *-ž-
*t	*t	*t	*t, *tʲ	*t	*t, *d	t		*t
*-t-			*d, *dʲ	*ð	∅	z
*ðʲ		*ð		*l, *-ð-	*ĺ	ɟ	*ĺ	*j	*j
*ð				∅	*l, *-∅-	l	*l	*l, *-ɬ-	*r	lost in Permic only intervocally, not in clusters
*l	*l	*l	*l	*l	*l				*l, *j	In Kh. also irregularly *l → *ɭ
*j	*j, *ː	*j	*j	*j	*j	j, ɟ	*j	*j	*j
*r	*r	*r	*r	*r	*r	r	*r	*r	*r

Medial consonant clusters

Words included chiefly from appendix from this: http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe20071746 (see comments in table code)

CF: http://books.google.fi/books?id=TM2NQ78dP2wC&pg=PA492&dq=phonotactics+of+PFU

2nd → 1st ↓		p	t	č	k	s	ś	š	d₁	l	r	w	j	m	n	ŋ	∑		Notes		Frequency color code
N	m	mp	mt	…		ms	mś		N/A			N/A					7		mostly i-stems except *ńimśa		single root
	n		nt	nč			nś	…									16		mostly back-harmonic a-stems; *ns → *nč?		two roots
	ŋ		ŋt		ŋk	ŋs		…									9		back-harmonic or *ä		3-4 roots
P	p	pp	pt			ps	pś	…	pd₁	…							7				5-6 roots
	t		…		tk												3		all front-harmonic ə-stems		10+ roots
	č		…	čč	čk												3				Most suspiciously none
	ć				…					…							…
	k		kt	…	kk	ks	kś	(kš)		…	…						12		*kš probably separate loans in FP and H.
S	s		…		sk	N/A											2		both o_ə
	ś		…		śk												5		mostly ə-stems + *wäśka
	š		…		…												…
L	l	…	lt	…	lk							lw	lj	lm	…	lŋ	25		*lw *lj only a-stems; *lt may be derived ← *-lk-t-
	r	rp	rt	…	rk							rw	…	rm	…	…	10		mostly back-harmonic
(?)	d₁/d₂				d₁k							d₂w		dₓm			3
sV	w		…			ws			wd₁	wl			wj		wn	wŋ	9		after e ä a o only
	j	…	…								…	jw	…	jm	…	jŋ	6		after ä a o only
∑		4	19	7	37	8	10	(1)	4	1	0	6	5	8	1	5

Not all blank'd cells were necessarily impossible: some roots of limited distribution have examples of *kč, *pš, *kš, *pl, *ćl, *kl, *kr, *čt, *tt, *st, *śt, *št, *šk, *ćk, *nš, *ŋš, *mč, *lp, *lč, *ln, *rč, *rj, *rn, *rŋ, *jp, *jt, *jr, *jj, *jń, *wt (mark'd with an ellipsis in the table).

This article is one of quite a few pages about Natlangs. Indo-european natlangs: Balto-Slavic Natlangs: Czech * Russian Celtic Natlangs: Revived Middle Cornish * Pictish Germanic Natlangs: North Germanic Natlangs: Norwegian West Germanic Natlangs: Anglo-Saxon * Dutch * English (Old English * Middle English * Modern English * Scots) * German (High German * Low German) Indo-Iranian Natlangs: Pahlavi Italic Natlangs: French * Italian * Latin * Spanish Debated: Cimmerian Uralic Natlangs: Finnish * Khanty * Mansi * Mordvinic * Proto-Uralic Altaic (controversial): Japanese Sino-Tibetan Natlangs: Uto-Aztecan Natlangs: Nahuatl - Isolate Natlangs: Basque * * Hypothetical/debated Natlangs and Natlang families: Danubian * Europic (obsolete)