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

Note: /ɤ/ here is actually a mid vowel, from the [ɤ̈] ~ [ɘ] ~ [ɵ] ballpark.

A schematic reconstruction of the proto-Permic vowel system:

• Stable vowels: *i *ɨ *uu *e *ɤ *a
  • Regular origins: *u, *ü_a → *ɨ; *ü_i *i → *i; *ë → *uu; ??; *ëx → *ɤ; ??
    • Presumably: y → ʉ / _a, then u → ʉ, finally y ʉ → i ɨ.
  • 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 ɨ/ ~ Komi /e ɤ u/
  • Origins largely irregular
  • (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 ɨ/ ~ K. /o ɤ/
  • Expected *oo becomes /a/ in Komi, when an older (non-surviving) intervocalic *t follos (). May be simply due to an open syllable.
  • Regular origins: *e *a → *oo; …
  • In Komi, initial cases acquire a preceding /v/. (? *wolka, *woča)
• A series of (long?) vowels open in Udmurt but mid in Komi: *aa *åå → U. /a a/ ~ K. /ɤ o/
  • Regular origins: *äl → *aa, *#(k)o_a → *(k)wåå (*kački-, *kota, *kolo, korwa, *kośki)
• The vowels reconstructed here as "long" seem to result mostly from PU *open vowels, those reconstructed as "short" mostly from PU *close vowels.

Conditional developments

• Komi *oo → a / _# (*mêti *wêti *sêti sEti → ma va sa za)
• Udmurt (*uu, *oo →) u → ɨ / _ĺ. (*kaðʲa- *koðʲV- *koðʲka *kujV-lV- *ńeljä #ćOlćV #EðʲV- → kɨĺ- kɨĺ- kɨĺ kɨĺĺɨ- ńɨĺ ćɨĺćo ɨĺ)
  • but NB bisyllabic *moðʲa *tuðʲkajm → mu.ĺɨ tu.ĺɨm

Awaiting explanation

• /i/ ~ /ɨ/ (*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. /-ijɨ-/)
  • /ɨ/ ~ /e/ (*wäśka, *läxmi, *mäćV - might be a split from *ɨ or *ɤɤ)
  • /ɨ/ ~ /o/ (*läkti-, *mäjaka, *saala, *kaasi)
  • /ɤ/ ~ /e/ (*pÄĺka)
  • /a/ ~ /e/ (*käliw, *orja) (*ää?)
  • /ä/ ~ /o/ (*täji) (does /ä/ even exist in Udmurt?? would be *åå otherwise)
• /wi/ ~ /uji/ (*kôlmi - from *uujV?)
• /ɨ/ ~ /i/ (*ćara, ćilV)
• /u/ ~ /ɨ/ (*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/ ~ /ɨ/ (*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				Open
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	ɤ	o	ɤ	e	u
Komi-Yazva	i	ɵ	u	iː		ɨː	uː	e	ɵ		o	a	?	?	?	?	?
Udmurt	i	ɨ	‡u	e	ɤ	ɨ	‡u	e		o	u	a			ɤ	o	ɨ
My Proto-P.	*i	*ɨ	*uu	*e1 (*ee?)		*ɤɤ	*oo1	*e2		*o	*oo2	*a	*aa	*åå	*ɤ	*ö	*u

† 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 (outside of the change of initial *r → ? *dr → /dʐ/ in Udmurt), and some words even have voiced/voiceless variants.

In several cases, apparently a voiceless initial assimilates to a voiced medial:

• *künči >> *kidž > *giž
• *kenta >> *kid > *gid
• *kënta >> *kVd > K. gɨd
• *kumpa >> *kɨb > *gɨb
• *ponči >> *bɤɤdž > *bɤɤž
• *sonta >> *suud > *zuud
• *sompa >> *sVb > K. zɨb
• *čeŋki >> *čog > U. džog, žog

In Komi this is more common than in Udmurt:

• *ponti >> *pVd > U. pud~bud, K. bed
• *š/čamći >> *šoodź > U. šudź, K. žodź
• *kansa >> *kooz > U. kuz, K. goz
• *puŋka >> *pVg > U. pog, K. bug

Sometimes this seems to be shared by Hungarian:

• *tOmpɜ- >> *tɨb- > *dɨb-; Hu. dob- ("to knock" ~ "to thro", could be onomatopoetic. Check Trc)

However, the change is far from fully general:

• *kunći > *kɨdź "birch"
• *kunći > *kudź "urine"
• *tumti- > *tod-
• *tëŋka > *tug
• *künta > *kɨd
• *čiŋka > *čög
• *pEntɜ > *pod
• *šoŋkɜ > *šoog
• *čêŋka > *čog
• *ś/ćäŋkɜ > *ćeeg
• *kunćɜ > *kVdź (> U. kidźi-ĺi, K. këdźɨl)
• *kamti > K. kud
• *konćɜ > K. kadź (cf. *ko(n)ć-ka > K. kaćka)
• *sVŋśa- > K. sidź-
• *sünti- > K. sod-
• #šäŋti > K. šogdi (bisyllabic? a derivativ?)
• *pinta > U. ped
• BF *kään-tä- ~ *ködž- (bad; BF a causativ)
• Ma *kində ~ *kɨd
• Ma *pʊndaš ~ *pɨdəs
• ObU *ćumpəl ~ *ćib
• ObU *kïïnt ~ *kuud
• Kh *pänt ~ K. pad

(*goobɨ "mushroom" is a Slavic loan with a voiced initial to begin with.)

There are also similar examples not from nasals:

• ObU *pɛɛrt ~ bördɨ (← IE *bʰrdʰ-?)
• Ms *kürtəɣ ~ *goorda