Permic
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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 *ooð.
- 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: ??; *äl → *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.
