Proto-Uralic
Subpages & such
- Sound changes to Finnish
- Sound changes to Proto-Samic
- Sound changes to Proto-Samoyedic
- Data for reduced vowels
- Data for remaining cases of *e
- Data for back unrounded vowels *a *ë
- Data for *ä
- Data for *ü
- Data for *i
- Potential derivativs
- Cluster issues
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)
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 *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 | *m | *m | m, -v- | *m | *m | *m | Sporadic lenition in H. |
| *n | *n | *n | n | *n, *-ń- / F_F |
*n | n | *n | *n | *n | |
| *ń | *ń | ń | *ń | ń | *ń | *ń | *ń | |||
| *-ŋ | *v, *ː | *ŋ | v | *ŋ | g | *ŋk | *ŋk | *ŋ | Irregularly split in ObU. (the more general development is *ŋk) | |
| *ŋ | *ŋ | |||||||||
| *w | *v | *w | *v | v | *w | *w | *w | |||
| *-w- | *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 | Stop voicing irregularly split in P. | |||
| *p | *p | *p | p, -v- | *p | *p, *b | f, -v- | *p | *p | ||
| *č | *t, *h | *c | č | *č | *č, *dž | *š | *č | *č | ||
| *ć | *s | *č | ś, -ć- | *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- | *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 | ||
| *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 | w | j | l | r | m | n | ŋ | ∑ | Notes | Frequency color code | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N | m | mp | mt | ms | mś | N/A | 5 | mostly i-stems except *mś | single root | |||||||||||
| n | nt | nč | nś | 13 | two roots | |||||||||||||||
| ń | ńś | 1 | might not be distinct from *nś | 3-4 roots | ||||||||||||||||
| ŋ | ŋt | ŋk | ŋs | 8 | back-harmonic or *ä | 5-6 roots | ||||||||||||||
| P | p | pp | pt | ps | pś | pð | 7 | ~10 roots | ||||||||||||
| t | tk | 3 | all front-harmonic i-stems | Most suspiciously none | ||||||||||||||||
| č | čk | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||
| k | kt | kk | ks | kś | 11 | |||||||||||||||
| S | s | sk | 2 | both o_i | ||||||||||||||||
| ś | śk | 4 | mostly i-stems + *wäśka | |||||||||||||||||
| (?) | x | xt | xč | xs | xś | (xð) | xj | xl | (xr) | xm | xn | 23 | i-stems only, some may be loans with long vowels | |||||||
| L | l | lt | lk | 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 | ||||||||||||||||
| sV | w | N/A? | wð | wj | wl | wŋ | 5 | after e ä a only | ||||||||||||
| j | jw | jm | jŋ | 6 | after ä a o only | |||||||||||||||
| ∑ | 4 | 17 | 7 | 31 | 8 | 10 | 4 | 8 | 5 | 11 | (1) | 10 | 1 | 4 | ||||||
