Tsurugi

Operation

Contrary to the sporadic expansions studied within the framework of the Phonetic history, the vocalic harmony is a phonological phenomenon alive which applies automatically in the languages concerned, according to given rules. So to a radical given (in which the vowels all are of the same class) one adds morphemes (like Affixe S), the vowels of the Morphème S in question must adapt; of kind, the affixes of a agglutinant Langue with vocalic harmony do not have a canonical form, since in the absence of radical, it is not always possible to specify the stamp of their vowels. In kind, the grammatical morphemes of a language with vocalic harmony have only Allomorphe S.

In the majority of the cases, the class to which must belong the vowels of the same word or of the same syntagm an opposition of district or form of the oral Résonateur concerns (mainly the place of the language): in the first case, all the vowels of this unit must be round or nonround, for example, and in second former the or posterior ones, the two mechanisms being able to mix. Other types of oppositions relate to also the position of the root of the language (projection or retracted). In certain languages, there exist double mechanisms of harmony and disharmonie (i.e. an inversion of the regular harmony under certain conditions). The Yucatec and the Aïnu form part of it.

The principal languages knowing the vocalic harmony are the agglutinant languages of the Ural-Altaic “family” :

of the Turkish languages like the Turkish , the Kazakh , etc;
the Mongolian ;
the Languages toungouses such as the Manchou;
of the Finno-ugric Languages like the Finnish, the Hungarian;

but also:

of the Languages bantoues like the Shona, the Lomongo, the Lobala, the Lika, etc;
of the nigéro-Congolese Languages like the Yoruba , the Wolof, the Peul, etc;
of the nilo-Saharan Languages like the Kalenjin, the Maasai, the Louo, etc;
the Korean means;
the Télougou.

This list is not exhaustive.

One will study in this article some systems of vocalic harmony, while starting with that of Turkish, one of most complex. The phonetic notations follow the uses of the API.

Vocalic Turkish harmony

Principles

In Turkish, the harmony relates to the shape of the oral resonator (“depth”) and the district (as well as the Aperture for the round vowels). One thus opposes two whole of vowels, those of back (posterior) and those of before (former), in which one distinguishes two subsets, round vowels and the nonround ones (vowel 1: opened; vowel 2: closed):

vowels of before:

nonround: E , I ,
round: ö , U,

vowels of back:

nonround: has , ı ,
round: O , U .

The following rules apply in the order given:

O and ö is excluded from the harmony: no added vowel can take these stamps;
any vowel can be followed vowels of the same stamp as it, except O and ö ;
any vowel of before is followed vowels of front, any vowel of back is followed vowels of back;
any vowel nonround is followed nonround vowels;
any vowel round is followed open round vowels ( U , U ) or closed nonround vowels ( has , E ), by compensation of rule 1.

The harmony thus concerns, in the order:

depth;
the district;
the aperture.

Synoptic table

The table is read as follows: a vowel 1 can be followed stamps given under the column vowel 2 ; one should not lose sight of the fact that the system is not symmetrical: the vowel according to a vowel 2 will take in its turn a stamp among a new whole of possibilities, so that all the vowels of the same word could not inevitably be compatible in a different order.

Thus, gönül , “heart”, is possible, but not *günöl , Konya (name of city) but not *Kanyo , etc

The following harmonies are obtained:

There exist exceptions, among which words of loan ( otobüs , of French bus ; one would await otobos or ötöbüs , which is attested orally, or dansör , telefon , jinekolog , etc), some words Turkish like Anne (“mom”), elma (“apple”), of made up ( bugün , “today”, of drunk “this” and gün “day”, instead of *bugun ). Moreover, has in a labial environment (followed p , B , m and v pronounced in this case) can be followed by U : tavuk “chicken”.

Lastly, eight suffix S never follow the vocalic harmony:

- daş (nominal suffix: groups of companions);
- gen (nominal suffix: names of polygons);
- gil (nominal suffix: elements of the same family);
- ken (“while… ”);
- ki (“which is…”; becomes however - kü after U );
- leyin (adverbial suffix: moments of the day);
- MT (ı) rak (adjectival suffix: names of colors, - hearth );
- yor (verbal suffix: progressive present).

Effects on the suffixal system

It was said, the Turkish is a agglutinant Langue, which means that one forms the semantic units by means of suffix S stuck the ones following the others. However, the laws of vocalic harmony impose on these affixes the stamp of their (S) vowel (S). It is thus not possible to quote them in a high-speed format and, moreover, no affix can vary its stamp in the complete extent of the vocalic range. The suffix of the verb “being” at the present (3rd person of the singular), for example, is carried out according to the base which precedes, ‑ to dir , ‑ dır , ‑ hard or ‑ hard ; one could note that ‑ D ı, U, ür ; this suffix is however never carried out * ‑ dar or ‑ DER . The suffix marking the case of the Ablative , however, ‑ D in , never takes the form * ‑ DIN , * ‑ dın , etc

There however does not need, in a dictionary, to indicate all the possible alternatives of the suffixes: the vocalic extent of the suffixes is limited indeed to two classes:

the class 1 makes alternate and;
the class 2 makes alternate ı, U, U.

As there exist only these two classes, it is of use to indicate the suffixes of the first by the vowel, those of second par. Ainsi, one notes ‑ to dir to mean ‑ D ı, U, ür and ‑ den for ‑ DNN .

Lastly, it is noted that the vowels and are excluded from the suffixal play.

Examples

Gönüllerimizdekiler (“those which are in our hearts”):

radical = gönül (“heart”);
suffixes = ‑ Lr (plural), ‑ m (1st sea-green. sg.), ‑ Z (plural pronominal), ‑ D '' (Rental), ‑ K '' (“which is…”; invariable suffix), ‑ Lr (plural).

Görmüyorsam (“if I am not seeing”):

radical = gör (“to see”);
suffixes = - m (negation), ‑ yr (present progressive; second invariable vowel), ‑ S '' (conditional), ‑ m (1st sea-green. sg.).

Conclusion

The Turkish process is complex and obliges to revise the concept even of vocalic harmony: all the vowels of the same word are not inevitably compatible between them; compatibility is indeed chronological and asymmetrical:

it is chronological because each vowel influences only that which follows it directly;
it is asymmetrical because the possible vocalic stamps on a given site do not function in couples (stamps and being absent from alternations). Moreover, the existence of the suffixes of first class in has force a reduction of the possible stamps: a suffix of class 2 following a suffix of class 1 sees its decreased possibilities of ı, U, U with ı. Of kind, the ends of long words are almost invariably has or ı.

Vocalic harmony in Finnish

The vocalic harmony in Finnish class vowels in three types:

former vowels: there , ö , ä ;
back vowels: U , O , has ;
neutral vowels: E , I .

The rules are the following ones:

any vowel of back must be accompanied by vowels of back or neutral vowels:

muoto (“form”) gives muodoton (“formless”; to note the vocalic harmony is accompanied by a consonant Alternance), haamu (“phantom”) gives haamuille (“with the phantoms”), rangaista (“to punish”) gives rangaistu (“punished”);

any vowel of before must be accompanied by vowels by before or by neutral vowels:

sytyttää (“to light”) gives sytyttämällä (“while lighting”), köyhä (“poor”) gives köyhimmille (“with poorest”), yö (“night”) gives öissä (“in the nights”);

the root S or topic S not comprising that neutral vowels form their forms inflected with vowels of before or other neutral vowels:

tie (“road”) gives teilläpä (“on the roads! ”), tepid (“knowledge”) gives tieteellistä (“scientific”), perhe (“family”) gives perheellekö? (“with the family? ”).

The vocalic harmony relates to all the suffixes and forms bent, which generates doublets for all the forms which do not comprise only neutral vowels:

ä is in correspondence with has ;
ö with O ;
there with U .

As follows:

- its/ssä (“in”): koneessa (“in the machine”)/ yhdessä (“in one”), etc;
- driven-mys (suffix creating a substantive starting from a verb): kokoomus (“union”)/ kysymys (“question”), etc;
- NSA-nsä (“its”, “its”, “them”): nuhansa (“its cold”)/ tyttärensä (“his/her daughter” or “their daughter”), etc;
- KB-kö (“”): saanko? (“can I? ”)/ ymmärtäisitkö? (“would you include/understand? ”), etc

On the other hand, E and I remain invariants:

it/it (“with”): kuurolle (“with the deaf person”)/ ystäville (“with the friends”), etc;
- immin/-immin (“in the manner more”): nopeimmin (“most quickly”)/ kätevimmin (“most conveniently”).

The vocalic harmony respects the topic of origin in the made up words:

kirjoituspöytä : “office”, of kirjoitus (“writing”) and pöytä (“table”);
surumielisyys : “melancholy”, of suru (“sadness”) and mieli (“spirit”),
in the other direction (vowels of before then vowels of back): elämänvaatimus : “vital need”, of elämä (“life”) and vaatimus (“required”), etc

The suffixes yield then only with the vocalic aspect of the last topic:

kirjoituspöydällä (“on the desk”);
surumielisyyttä (“of the melancholy”);
elämänvaatimuksina (“as vital needs”).

Certain words borrowed from foreign languages do not follow the vocalic harmony: polymeeri (“polymeric”), autoritäärinen (“authoritative”). A spontaneous vocalic harmony can then appear: olympia for example being pronounced like olumpia . The inflected forms rather follow the vocalism of the end of the word: polymeereissä (“in polymers”).

Vocalic Hungarian harmony

The vocalic harmony of Hungarian opposes two classes of vowels, according to the Joint (position of the language): vowels of back, known as dark and those of front, known as clear. The class of the clear vowels is subdivided in two subclasses according to whether the vowel is round or not (the shape of the lips):

dark vowels: has / á , O / ó and U / ú ;
clear vowels: I / í , E / E , ö / ő and nonround U / ű of which

: I / í , E / E ;
round: ö / ő and U / ű .

The pairs of vowels above correspond to an opposition length; in the continuation of the section the second form, the long one, will be omitted because the length does not have an influence on the vocalic harmony. has is posterior () and that á is former (), but the two vowels are regarded as dark.

The rules, which appear especially in the Agglutination by addition of suffix S, are the following ones:

any vowel dark (of back) must be followed by a dark vowel;
any vowel clear (of before) must be followed by a clear vowel;
the round ones are followed the round ones when the suffix has a round form, if not of former.

There exist exceptions; in particular E and I is partially compatible with the dark vowels.

The suffixes are generally to two (back ~ before) or three possibilities (back ~ before nonround ~ before round). Some suffixes in I (even in E ) have only one form. Here possible alternations, with examples:

ö, o
Exemple: - Hz (at, with change of place):

Peter → Péterhez: at Peter;
Erdős → Erdőshöz : at Erdős.
László → Lászlóhoz : direction from László.

o
Exemple : - tk (second person plural):

leül- (to sit down) → leültek: you sit;
tanul- (to study) → tanultok: study.

a
Exemple - nl (at, without change of place)

Peter → Péternél: at Peter
Anna → Annánál: at Anna

u
Exemple: - nk (third person plural):

csinal- (to make) → csinálunk: let us make;
keres (to seek) → keresünk: let us seek.

o
Exemple : - Tl (coming from at):

Peter → Pétertől: of at Peter;
Anna → Annától: of at Anna.

Exemple : - ig (until):

ház (house) → házig: to house.

Exemple : - ék (family):

Kovács → Kovácsék : the Kovács family.

Vocalic harmony in shona

In Shona (Language bantoue), the harmony relates to only the Aperture; there exist two classes of vowels and the only alternating stamps are and:

closed vowels: ; followed;
open vowels: ; followed.

Standard of phonetic modifications;
assimilation;
Expansion.

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