Re: Umlaut (was: More questions)

Quoting Jörg Rhiemeier <joerg_rhiemeier@...>:

> Hallo!
>
> On Wed, 26 Nov 2003 19:13:07 +0000,
> Ray Brown <ray.brown@...> wrote:
>
> > On Tuesday, November 25, 2003, at 09:06 PM, Amanda Babcock wrote:
> >
> > > On Tue, Nov 25, 2003 at 09:26:41AM -0500, John Cowan wrote:
> > >
> > >> There are three types of umlaut recognized in Germanistics:  i-umlaut,
> > >> or fronting, which is the type you describe; u-umlaut, or rounding;
> > >> a-umlaut, or lowering.
> > >
> > > Is there a general tendency toward fronting, rounding, and lowering,
> > > as opposed to backing, unrounding, and raising, or are these just the
> > > three orthogonal operations Germanic languages chose to use?
> >
> > i-umlaut & a-umlaut certainly occur in Welsh and and the other Brittonic
> > langs.
> > i-umaut occurs in the Gaelic langs - I'm not sure if a-umlaut does.
> >
> > The tendency, if there is a shifting, seems to be towards one of the
> > apexes of
> > the 'vocalic triangle' as, I think, John's email implies.  AFAIK i-umlaut
> > is
> > the most common variety, a-umlaut second most and u-umlaut least frequent.
>
> ObConlang: My conlang family provisionally designated "Q" has i-umlaut
> and u-umlaut; I am considering adding a-umlaut, but I am not sure about
> the latter.  However, as I think about it, I think a-umlaut is a good
> idea.  Makes matters neatly symmetrical and more complex.
My conlang Tersnuvu - I guess it must be characterized as effectively
abandoned for know; it never got much past phonology and nominal morphology
anyway - managed, using only i-umlaut and reduction of diphthongs in certain
positions, to expand it's vocalic inventory from /i a u ai au/ to /i y e a o u
ei ey ai au/. Should I start seriously working on it again, I guess I ought to
introduce a- and u-umlaut too, wrecking some REAL havoc.

If you wonder what unreal havoc looks like, well, _Tersnuvu_ derives from
*_taris-nu-bhu_, and is a fairly nice exemplum. _Sorva_<*_sabhar-abhan_ is
already noticeably nastier, and _Esh_>*_Ariti_ is also sub-obvious.

                                                           Andreas

PS Full points to anyone who's figured this started out as a naming language!