Re: Consonant Harmony?

At 20:49 -0500 15.2.2000, nicole perrin wrote:
>
>I was toying with the idea of vowel harmony in a new lang, but I never
>really liked it as a trait, so I got curious.  Are there any natlangs
>that use "consonant harmony?"  For example, in a particular word, all
>the consonants must be voiced?  Or labial?  Or fricatives?  I don't know
>which distinction I would choose (voicing, POA, quality, etc.), but do
>natlangs do this at all?
>
>Nicole
There are Turkic languages which have replaced the "traditional" vowel
harmony by palatalization harmony in consonants.  Scots Gaelic has
nasalization as a suprasegmental feature: either all or none of the vowels
of a word are nasal.  I don't know of any case of "pure" cons. harmony, but
voicing harmony, or pharyngalization harmony affecting all segments of a
word, seem thinkable.


/BP

 B.Philip Jonsson  <mailto: bpj@...> <mailto: melroch@...>
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