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, 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)
Development
- Sound changes to Finnish
- Sound changes to Proto-Samic
- Sound changes to Proto-Samoyedic
Data subpages
In the tables, bold marks vocalic irregularities, italic uncertainties in what the regular vocalic reflex is, red consonantal irregularities.
| *i • *ü • *u |
| *e • *o reduced vowels? |
| back unrounded vowels *a *ë • *ä |
| Known derivativs with -kA • -mA • Potential derivativs • Cluster issues |
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 | 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. |
| *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 | *w | *w | *w | ||
| *-w- | *j / F_, ∅ / B_ |
∅ | *v → -ː- | *ɣ | *ɣ | ∅ | ||||
| *-x- | *ː | *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 | |
| *č | *t, *h | *c | č | *č | *č, *dž | č, š | *š | *č | *č | |
| *ć | *s | *č | ś | *ć ? | *ć, *dź | č, s | *ć, *s | *ć, *s | *s | |
| *ś | ś, -ź- | *š, -ž- | *ś, *-ź- | *s, *š | s | *s | ||||
| *s | *s | s, -z- | *s, *-z- | ∅ | *t | *ɬ | *t | |||
| *š | *h | š, -ž- | *š, *-ž- | |||||||
| *t | *t | *t | *t, *tʲ | *t | *t, *d | t | *t | |||
| *-t- | *d, *dʲ | *ð | ∅ | z | ||||||
| *ðʲ | *ð | *l, *-ð- | *ĺ | ɟ | *ĺ | *j | *j | |||
| *ð | *l, *-∅- | *l | l | *l | *l, *-ɬ- | *r | ||||
| *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 |
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 | ð | l | r | w | j | m | n | ŋ | ∑ | Notes | Frequency color code | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N | m | mp | mt | ms | mś | N/A | N/A | 7 | mostly i-stems except *ńimśa | single root | |||||||||||
| n | nt | nč | nś | … | 15 | mostly back-harmonic a-stems; *ns → *nč? | two roots | ||||||||||||||
| ŋ | ŋt | ŋk | ŋs | ŋś | … | 10 | 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 | … | 2 | Most suspiciously none | ||||||||||||||||
| ć | … | … | … | ||||||||||||||||||
| k | kt | … | kk | ks | kś | (kš) | … | … | 12 | *kš probably separate loans in FP and H. | |||||||||||
| S | s | … | sk | N/A | 2 | both o_i | |||||||||||||||
| ś | … | śk | 5 | mostly i-stems + *wäśka | |||||||||||||||||
| š | … | … | … | ||||||||||||||||||
| L | l | … | lt | … | lk | lw | lj | lm | … | lŋ | 25 | *lw *lj only a-stems; *lt may be derived ← *-lk-t- | |||||||||
| r | rp | rt | … | rk | rw | … | rm | … | … | 10 | mostly back-harmonic | ||||||||||
| (?) | ð(ʲ) | ð(ʲ)k | 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 | wn | wŋ | 6 | after e ä a only | |||||||||||
| j | … | … | … | jw | … | jm | … | jŋ | 6 | after ä a o only | |||||||||||
| ∑ | 4 | 21 | 7 | 37 | 8 | 10 | (1) | 4 | 11 | (1) | 8 | 5 | 10 | 2 | 4 | ||||||
Not all blank'd cells were necessarily impossible: some roots of limited distribution have examples of *kč, *pš, *kš, *pl, *ćl, *čl, *kl, *kr, *tt, *čt, *st, *śt, *št, *šk, *ćk, *nš, *ŋš, *lp, *lč, *ln, *rč, *rj, *rn, *rŋ, *ðm, *jp, *jt, *jr, *jj, *jń, *wt (mark'd with an ellipsis in the table).
