Permic

The Permic languages are a branch of Uralic languages spoken in west-central Russia. The family is divided to Udmurt and Komi; the Permyak dialect of Komi is sometimes also included as a separate language.

Vowels

A schematic reconstruction of the proto-Permic vowel system:

• Stable vowels: *i *ɯ *uu *e *ɤ *a
  • Regular origins: *ü_a → *ɯ; *ü_i *i → *i; *ë → *uu; ??; *ëx → *ɤ; ??
  • Length in *uu is purely hypothetical; this is to mark that unlike the vowel denoted *u (perhaps [ʊ]?), it is not subject to unrounding in Udmurt.
• Derounding (short?) vowels: *ö *o *u → Udmurt /o o ɯ/ ~ Komi /e ɤ u/
  • No real regular origin
  • (There does not seem to be an *ü → **/i/ ~ **/ü/.)
• A series of (long?) vowels close in Udmurt but mid in Komi: *oo *ɤɤ → U. /u ɯ/ ~ K. /o ɤ/
  • In Komi, initial cases acquire a preceding /v/.
  • Expected *oo becomes /a/ in Komi, when an older (non-surviving) intervocalic *t follos. This is written as *oo^ð.
  • Regular origins: *e *a → *oo; …
• A series of (long?) vowels open in Udmurt but mid in Komi: *åå *aa → U. /a a/ ~ K. /o ɤ/
  • Regular origins: ??; *ä → *aa
• The vowels reconstructed here as "long" seem to result mostly from PU *open vowels, those reconstructed as "short" mostly from PU *close vowels.
• Awaiting explanation
  • /i/ ~ /ɯ/ (*ńëxli, *künči, *jürä)
  • A trubbling amount of correspondences predominantly found as supposed sporadic developments from *ä
    • The most prominent of these is *o.
    • /e/ ~ /ɤ/ (all a-stems: *pära, *säppa, *kärta, *läśa, *käna, *käća)
    • /i/ ~ /(j)e/ (*śäŋki, *läppa, *wü/äðim, *ilma) (*ee? "marrow" also U. /-ijɯ-/)
    • /ɯ/ ~ /e/ (*wäśka, *läxmi, *mäćV - might be a split from *ɯ or *ɤɤ)
    • /ɯ/ ~ /o/ (*läkti-, *mäjaka, *kaðʲa-, *saala, *kaasi)
    • /ɤ/ ~ /e/ (*pÄĺka)
    • /a/ ~ /e/ (*käliw) (*ää?)
    • /ä/ ~ /o/ (*täji) (does /ä/ even exist in Udmurt?? would be *åå otherwise)
  • /wi/ ~ /uji/ (*kôlmi - from *uujV?)
  • /ɯ/ ~ /i/ (*ćara, ćilV)
  • /u/ ~ /ɯ/ (*to, *süli, *käpsa, *jewa, *lixwa)
  • /u/ ~ /e/ (*satVr, *ponti)
  • /u/ ~ /ɤ/ (*śüćV, *süD´än)
  • /u/ ~ /a/ (*wanša)
  • /e/ ~ /o(j)/ (*kixi-ma, *mińa, *kiśka-)
  • /ɤ/ ~ /i/ (*kiwi)
  • /ɤ/ ~ /ɯ/ (*nôla)
  • /ɤ/ ~ /o/ (*kAl-)
  • /o/ ~ /i/ (*wixća-, *wita (or *ô?))
  • /o/ ~ /a/ (*čokV-)
  • /a/ ~ /u/ (*vooti) - reverse of expected outcome, may be data mixup? Álgu has /vo/ for Komi
  • Note the popularity of Udmurt high vowels

Standard Proto-Permic:

	Close #1			Close #2				Mid
Proto-Permic (Sammallahti)	*ɪ	*ɪ̵	*ʏ, *ʊ	*i	*ʉ	*ɨ	*y, *u	*e	*ɤ	*ɵ	*o	*a
Proto-Permic (Itkonen)	*i	*ɨ	*u	*e	*ɵ		*o	*ɛ	*ʌ		*ɔ	*a
Komi	i	ɨ	u	e		ɤ	o	†ɛ → e	ɤ		†ɔ → o	a
Komi-Yazva	i	ɵ	u	iː		ɨː	uː	e	ɵ		o	a
Udmurt	i	ɨ	‡u	e	ɤ	ɨ	‡u	e		o	u	a
My Proto-P.	*i	*ɨ	*uu	*e		*ɤɤ	*oo1	*e		*o	*oo2	*a

† Distinct /ɛ ɔ/ are attested in Old Komi (/ɔ/ also dialectally).
‡ Sammallahti's *y *ʏ occur for words that in SW Udmurt have /ʉ/ in place of expected /u/.

Consonants

Permic is notorious within Uralic for contrasting voicing in obstruents even initially. There is no accepted explanation for the origin of this contrast, and some words even alternate (eg. )

A distinctiv later development is initial *r → ? *dr → /dʐ/ in Udmurt.