Re: Russian e and jat' (was: Amanda's sentences as translation exercise)

Russian has not only jo, but a whole series of palatalisation vowels:
ja, je, ju. I'm surprised that they don't turn up in this discussion.
But my knowledge of Russian historical phonology is scarce, and
perhaps they occur only as a result of being adjacent to palatalised
consonants. They do occur initially sometimes, but maybe this is due
to loans, like the names Jurij and Julija, or inheritance from IE.

We have the phenomenon in Germanic too. Germ. Bär, Scand. Bjørn/
Björn, but also Erde/Jord. I'm using it in Urianian as well to
account for a few names that I could reconcile with IE roots by
equipping them with initial or internal palatals. But the scheme here
seems to be: a>jo, e>ja, i>je, o>ju. Nothing for u. It's curious that
the "thin" vowels (i, e) open up, while the others are closing. But
if the Urianians want it that way, they shall get it.

LEF

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