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 Mordvinic
• 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]. 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".

Opinions vary on if (1st-syllable) *ë was [ɯ] or [ɤ], and *a [ɑ] or [ɒ]. As of July 2014 I (Tropylium) support [ɤ] for the former, as suggested by e.g. the substitution of Indo-Iranian *a by *ë in loans (unless these words are post-PU in date.) The latter seems like an open question; I am investigating the possibility of [ɒ] as the default value, [ɑ] as a positional allophone.

Several amendments have been proposed at times:

• Long vowels or equivalent entities have been a popular proposal, but the main evidence, from Finnic, has recently been adequately explained otherwise.
• A number of studies have proposed, on the basis of the Ugric evidence, to reinterpret several quality contrasts as quantity contrasts instead.^{[citation needed]} No wholly systemic account of this idea seems to have been presented to this day.
• Korhonen (1988) proposes an *ï, which would have split at an early date to to front and back allophones, the former then developing into standard *ü.
• This *ï has been reshuffled into two "reduced" or "semi-rounded" vowels *ê *ô ([ɪ ʊ]?) by Häkkinen (2007), which also aim to explain some apparent exceptions in the development of *e and *o. In light of some recently identified conditional sound laws, this may not be a necessary hypothesis. (I still suspect that at least a raised allophone of *e might have existed though.)

Consonants

Nasals */m n ń ŋ/, voiceless stops/affricates */p t ć č k/, voiceless sibilants */s ś š/, a "laryngeal" */x/ (a voiceless velar fricativ [x] seems like the most plausible sound value, though voiced [ɣ] is not ruled out), two "spirants" */d₁ d₂/ (traditionally interpreted as [ð] and [ðʲ] respectivly, though this is far from certain), two liquids */l r/ and two semivowels */w j/.

The existence of a distinction between *ć and *ś is not certain. *ć can be securely established only in the clusters *ćć, *ńć, where *ś is not found. The Proto-Uralic status of *š is also uncertain: most words with the consonant are not found in languages east to Permic, and frequently moreover probable Indo-European loanwords.

A palatal liquid *ĺ is also commonly found in old reconstructions (e.g. in the Uralisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch), but many of the etyma involved do not really behave. Some may be late inter-branch loans. Most others have been by now accounted for by a widespread development *l > *ĺ in Samoyedic. The "palatal spirant" *d₂ may thus have been the actual palatal liquid; obstruent reflexes are limited to western branches, and external comparisions generally involve laterals. (The "dental spirant" also develops to /l/ widely, but was certainly distinct from *l.)

Three further consonants of dubious nature were supported until the mid-20th century: the palatal shibilant *š́ (distinguished from regular *ś only in Mansi), and the retroflex sonorants *ṇ, *ḷ (distinguished from regular *n, *l only in Khanty).

Phonotactics

A notable distributional feature was that *ŋ, *x and probably also *d₁, *r could not occur word-initially.

Roots generally had the form (C)V(C)C{A I}, with initial stress. A couple longer stems of the shape (C)V(C)C{A I}C(I) are also attested. Shorter CV roots occurred in grammatical words: pronouns, prepositions and the copula also CV; there was also a single lone-V root, the negativ verb *e-.

See below for allowed consonant clusters.

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
*d₂		*ð		*l, *-ð-	*ĺ	ɟ	*ĺ	*j	*j
*-d₁-				∅	*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

Major consonant developments involving specific vowel environments include:

• the widespread loss of *w before non-open labial vowels, *j before non-open front vowels
  • best retained in Permic and Khanty
• the labialization of *k, *ŋ, *x in Mansi to *kʷ, *ŋʷ, *w before and after labial vowels
• the assibilation of *t in Finnic (of any origin, i.e. < *t, *č, *d₁, *d₂) to *c before *i

Major soundlaws affecting consonant clusters include:

• the widespread loss or vocalization of *j and *w
  • only Samic consistently retains these, though Finnic in most cases as well and Samoyedic also frequently
  • the cluster *lj has widely coalesced to /lʲ/; in Mordvinic all j-clusters yield palatalized consonants
  • Mansi and Khanty have retained a few direct traces of *w (generally as delabialized *ɣ)
  • indirect traces of such clusters are widely found in the development of vowels
• the shortening of geminates everywhere except in Samic and Finnic
  • generally leading to new medial voiceless stops/affricates, after the lenition of the original ones
  • geminates other than *kk are merged with the corresponding singletons in Mari, Mansi, Khanty and Samoyedic
• the assimilation of *mt to *nt in Finnic, Mordvinic, Mansi, and probably Permic & Hungarian
• the denasalization of nasal + stop/affricate clusters to voiced stops/affricates in Permic and Hungarian
  • the pre-Hungarian voiced affricates have lost their sibilancy: *nč *ńć > *[ʤ ʥ] > /r ɟ/
• the metathesis of *k in Mansi and Khanty, when following a heterorganic consonant
• the loss of *k in Samoyedic, under the same conditions
• after the loss of final vowels, the breaking of most heterorganic consonant clusters by an epenthetic schwa in Hungarian, Mansi and Khanty
  • entirely general in Khanty, somewhat limited in Hungarian and Mansi; in many cases consonant clusters are still attested in Old Hungarian
  • some traces of a similar process are found in Mari (for *ŋ + sibilant) and Finnic (for *kś) as well
• the loss of *p before other obstruents in Mansi
• the "palatality metathesis" (*Ć-lk, *d₂k, *d₂w >) *ĺɣ > /lɟ/ in Hungarian
• the assimilation of *lm (incl. earlier *d₁m) to *nm in Permic
• the merger and lenition of *pt *kt to *ht in Finnic, *ft in Mordvinic
• the simplification of *čč, *kš to *h in Finnic (via *th, *kh?)

Medial consonant clusters

Includes chiefly the words from the appendix in Häkkinen (2007).

Cf. Sammallahti (1988): 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					8		mostly i-stems except *kompa *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		…	…						13		but *mekšə "bee" 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	…	…	11		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
∑		5	19	7	37	8	10	2	4	1	0	9	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).

Literature

Current standard literature

• Janhunen, Juha (1981): Uralilaisen kantakielen sanastosta
• Janhunen, Juha (1982): On the structure of Proto-Uralic
• Sammallahti, Pekka (1988): Historical Phonology of the Uralic languages

Nonstandard proposals

• Häkkinen, Jaakko (2007): Kantauralin murteutuminen vokaalivastaavuuksien valossa. Master's thesis. http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe20071746
• Korhonen, Mikko (1988): Uralilaisten kielten jälkitavujen vokaaliston historiaa

Dated reconstructions

• Collinder, Björn (1960): Comparative Grammar of the Uralic languages
• Itkonen, Erkki (1946): Zur Frage nach der Entwicklung des Vokalismus der ersten Silbe in den finnisch-ugrischen Sprachen, insbesondere in Mordwinischen. Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen 29.
• Steinitz, Wolfgang (1944): Geschichte des finnisch-ugrischen Vokalismus. Stockholm.
• Sammallahti, Pekka (1979): Über die Laut- und Morphemstruktur der uralischen Grundsprache. Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen 43.

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)