Re: Pablo is back, Job, Argentina, Relay, Lord of the Rings

Stephen Mulraney wrote:
>John Cowan <jcowan@...> wrote:
>
>
>> > Ah yes... plural formed by 'narrowification' of the vowels. ;)
>> > (though I prefer to call it 'caoilification', mar is ainm an saghas
>> > focail seo 'caoil' ;))
>>
>> Ugh, what a hideous pair of terms.
>
>That's why I like them ;)
>
>> "Umlaut" or specifically
>> "i-umlaut", or "i-affection", are the usual terms.  It is (or rather
>> was) operative in German, English, and Welsh.

Or you could call it "assimilation" (regressive or anticipatory in the case
of Umlaut)-- **husi > **hysi --back/rounded /u/ changes to front/rounded due
to the following front /i/; or progressive if the other way round:  **husi >
**husy -- front/unround /i/ acquires/assimilates the rounded feature from
preceding rounded /u/ by carry-over.

Even things like t > tS /___[front V]  or voicelss stop > voiced /[V,
voiced]__[V,voiced] are forms of assimilation, though a little more
complicated to explain in feature terms.  And also of course the well known
(any)nasal > [homorganic] ___ [stops p,t,k]