Proto-Uralic: Difference between revisions

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(→‎Reconstructed phoneme inventory: clusters, neovowels etc)
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;Vowels:
;Vowels:
<nowiki>*/i ü u e ë o ä a/</nowiki> 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".
<nowiki>*/i ü u e ë o ä a/</nowiki> 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".


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.)
Opinions differ on if (1st-syllable) *ë was [ɯ] or [ɤ], and *a [ɑ] or [ɒ]. As of July 2014 I ([[User:Tropylium|Tropylium]]) support [ɤ] for the former; but substitution of Indo-Iranian *a by *ë in loans suggests the latter values (unless these particular words are newer loans.) The latter seems like an open question; I am investigating the possibility of [ɒ] as the default value, [ɑ] as a possible positional allophone.


Two "reduced" or "semi-rounded" vowels */ê ô/ have been proposed recently.
Several amendments have been proposed at times:
* Two "reduced" or "semi-rounded" vowels *ê *ô ([ɪ ʊ]?) have been proposed by Häkkinen (2007), though in light of some recently identified conditional sound laws, this may not be a necessary hypothesis. I suspect that at least a raised allophone of *e might be necessary to posit.
* 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.
* A number of studies have proposed, on the basis of the Ugric evidence, to reinterpret several quality contrasts as quantity contrasts instead.<sup>[citation needed]</sup> No wholly systemic account of this idea seems to exist.


;Consonants:
;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/.
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 [x], possibly a recent pre-Uralic split from *k), 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/.


<nowiki>*ć</nowiki> (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.
<nowiki>*ć</nowiki> (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" *d₂ may be the actual palatal liquid; obstruent reflexes are limited to western branches, and external comparisions generally involve laterals. The dental spirant is however certainly distinct from *l, despite merging with it in several branches.


A notable distributional feature was that *ŋ, *x and probably also *ð, *r could not occur word-initially.
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; in pronouns and prepositions and the copula also CV; and a single lone-V root, the negativ verb *e-
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-
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| rowspan="3"| *d, *dʲ || *ð || ∅ || z
| rowspan="3"| *d, *dʲ || *ð || ∅ || z
|-
|-
! *ðʲ
! *d₂
| rowspan="2"| *ð || *l, *-ð- || *ĺ || ɟ || *ĺ || *j || *j
| rowspan="2"| *ð || *l, *-ð- || *ĺ || ɟ || *ĺ || *j || *j
|-
|-
! *ð
! *-d₁-
| ∅ || *l, *-∅- || rowspan="2"| l || rowspan="2"| *l || rowspan="2"| *l, *-ɬ- || *r
| ∅ || *l, *-∅- || rowspan="2"| l || rowspan="2"| *l || rowspan="2"| *l, *-ɬ- || *r
| lost in Permic only intervocally, not in clusters
| lost in Permic only intervocally, not in clusters
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| * || * ||  || * || * ||  || * || * || *-->
| * || * ||  || * || * ||  || * || * || *-->
|}
|}
Notable soundlaws involving 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 (though generally delabialized to *ɣ)
** Mordvinic appears to also distinguish *ws by a development to *-s- rather than *-z-
** indirect traces of such clusters are widely found in the development of vowels
* the shortening of geminates everywhere except in Samic and Finnic
** in most branches 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
** later on, *nč *ńć > pre-H *[ʤ ʥ] > /r ɟ/
* the metathesis and lenition of *k to *ɣ in Mansi and Khanty, when following a heterorganic consonant
* the loss of *k in Samoyedic, under the same conditions
* the "palatality metathesis" (*Ć-lk, *d₂k, *d₂w >) *ĺɣ > /lɟ/ in Hungarian
* the assimilation of *lm (possibly from 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


==Medial consonant clusters==
==Medial consonant clusters==

Revision as of 04:38, 3 July 2014

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

Data subpages

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

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

Known derivativs with

Potential derivativsCluster issuesCo-occurrence of coronalsWest-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 differ 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; but substitution of Indo-Iranian *a by *ë in loans suggests the latter values (unless these particular words are newer loans.) The latter seems like an open question; I am investigating the possibility of [ɒ] as the default value, [ɑ] as a possible positional allophone.

Several amendments have been proposed at times:

  • Two "reduced" or "semi-rounded" vowels *ê *ô ([ɪ ʊ]?) have been proposed by Häkkinen (2007), though in light of some recently identified conditional sound laws, this may not be a necessary hypothesis. I suspect that at least a raised allophone of *e might be necessary to posit.
  • 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.
  • 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 exist.
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 [x], possibly a recent pre-Uralic split from *k), 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/.

*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" *d₂ may be the actual palatal liquid; obstruent reflexes are limited to western branches, and external comparisions generally involve laterals. The dental spirant is however certainly distinct from *l, despite merging with it in several branches.

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; 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,
*n- /#_B
ń
*-ŋ *v, *ː *j / F_,
*v / B_
ń / F_,
n / C_,
m / B_
g *ŋk *ŋk Irregularly split in ObU (the more general development is *ŋk)

Retained in some Erzya & Udmurt dialects

*w *v *v *w *v v *w *w *w
*-w- *j / F_,
∅ / B_
*v → -ː-
*-x- *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
*t, *h *c *č, *dž č, š
*s *ś, *-ć- *ć, *-ź- *ć, *dź č, s *ć, *s *ć, *s *s
ś, -ź- *š, -ž- *ś, *-ź- *s, *š s *s
*s *s *s, *-z- *s, *-z- *t *t
*h *š, *-ž- *š, *-ž-
*t *t *t *t, *tʲ *t *t, *d t *t
*-t- *d, *dʲ z
*d₂ *l, *-ð- ɟ *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

Notable soundlaws involving 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 (though generally delabialized to *ɣ)
    • Mordvinic appears to also distinguish *ws by a development to *-s- rather than *-z-
    • indirect traces of such clusters are widely found in the development of vowels
  • the shortening of geminates everywhere except in Samic and Finnic
    • in most branches 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
    • later on, *nč *ńć > pre-H *[ʤ ʥ] > /r ɟ/
  • the metathesis and lenition of *k to *ɣ in Mansi and Khanty, when following a heterorganic consonant
  • the loss of *k in Samoyedic, under the same conditions
  • the "palatality metathesis" (*Ć-lk, *d₂k, *d₂w >) *ĺɣ > /lɟ/ in Hungarian
  • the assimilation of *lm (possibly from 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

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 N/A N/A 8 mostly i-stems except *kompa *ńimśa single root
n nt 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 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 (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 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 9 after e ä a o only
j jw jm 6 after ä a o only
5 19  37 8 10 (1) 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).

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)