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, 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)

Development

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

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 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 [i a]. Mid values [e ~ ə ~ ɤ] for */I/ are also possible.

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. 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 *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):

C	Finnic	Samic	Mo.	Mari	Permic	Hung.	Ms.	Kh.	Smy.	Comments
*m	*m	*m	m, v	*m	*m	m, -v-	*m	*m	*m	Sporadic lenition in Mo, 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, -ː-	*w	*w	*w
*-w-							*ɣ	*ɣ	∅
*-x-	*ː	*k	j	∅	∅
*-k-	*k		j, v	g	∅					Mordvinic 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	*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, *dź	s, č	*s, *š	*s, *ť	*s
*ś			ś, -ź-	*š	*ś, *-ź-	s		*s
*s		*s	s, -z-		*s, *-z-	∅	*t	*ɬ	*t
*š	*h		š, -ž-		*š, *-ž-
*t	*t	*t	t, -d- tʲ, -dʲ-	*t, *-d-	*t, *d	t, -z-		*t
*ðʲ		*ð		*l	*ĺ	ɟ	*ĺ	*j	*j
*ð				*l, *-d-	*l	l	*l	*l, *-ɬ-	*r
*l	*l	*l	l	*l					*l, *j
*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	ð	l	r	w	j	m	n	ŋ	∑		Notes		Frequency color code
N	m	mp	mt			ms	mś		N/A							6		mostly i-stems except *ńimśa		single root
	n		nt	nč			nś									13		mostly back-harmonic a-stems		two roots
	ŋ		ŋt		ŋk	ŋs	ŋś									9		back-harmonic or *ä		3-4 roots
P	p	pp	pt			ps	pś	pð								7				5-6 roots
	t				tk											3		all front-harmonic i-stems		~10 roots
	č				čk											1				Most suspiciously none
	k		kt		kk	ks	kś									11
S	s				sk	N/A										2		both o_i
	ś				śk											4		mostly i-stems + *wäśka
L	l		lt		lk				N/A		lw	lj	lm		lŋ	21		*lw *lj only a-stems; *lt may be derived ← *-lk-t-
	lʲ				lʲk											1
	r	rp	rt		rk						rw		rm			10		mostly back-harmonic
(?)	ðʲ				ðʲk						ðʲw					2
	x		xt?	(xč)		xs?		(xð)	xl	(xr)		xj	xm	xn		22		i-stems only, some may be loans with long vowels
sV	w	N/A?						wð	wl			wj			wŋ	5		after e ä a only
	j										jw		jm		jŋ	6		after ä a o only
∑		4	17	7	31	8	10	4	11	(1)	8	5	10	1	4

Not all blank'd cells were necessarily impossible: some roots of limited distribution have examples of *lp, *tt, *čt, *st, *śt, *št, *kč, *šk, *ln, *rj, *rn, *rŋ, *jp, *jt, *jr, *jj, *jń, *wt (mark'd with an ellipsis in the table).