Re: Umlaut (was: More questions)

On Wed, 26 Nov 2003 21:15:35 +0100, Jörg Rhiemeier <joerg_rhiemeier@...>
wrote:

> On Wed, 26 Nov 2003 19:13:07 +0000,
> Ray Brown <ray.brown@...> wrote:
>
>> 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 still unnamed project (provisionally WC8, de facto, it seems) has vowel
mutation that works like umlaut, and which may have historically been
umlaut (or more properly vowel harmony followed by umlaut).

All morphemes are (C)C(C)V monosyllablic.

Many of the suffixes in the language do not have an inherent vowel in them,
but rather a vowel mutation.

It's so incredibly hard to notate in non-UTF, but I'll try:

The "1st person dual human male 1st plus male 2nd" verb flexion is -qA,
meaning -q-followed by the previous vowel, mutated towards a, i.e.

c^i l/o'     /tSI L\O/      I see a book
c^iqe l/o'   /tSIGe L\O/    we (you & I) see a book (i + A -> e)

cto' l/o'    /!\O L\O/      I pick up a book
cto'qa'      /!\OGA L\O/    we pick up a book (o' + A -> a')

The "first person plural exclusive" verb flexion is -pU, meaning -p-
followed by the previous vowel, mutated towards u, i.e.

c^ipu l/o'   /tSIpU L\O/    we (but not you) see a book (i + U -> u)
cto'pu' l\o' /!\Opu L\O/    we pick up a book (o' + U -> u')

The entire table is as follows:

        A       I       U
a       a       e       o
e       a       i       o
i       e       i       u
o       a       e       u
u       o       i       u

Rows for source vowels, columns for mutation, each cell for the outcome.
Also, a vowel mutated by "itself" increases in length one step, i.e

a /V/ -> a' /A/ -> a^ /A:/
e /e/ -> e' /E/ -> e^ /E:/
i /I/ -> i' /i/ -> i^ /i:/
o /o/ -> o' /O/ -> o^ /O:/
u /U/ -> u' /u/ -> u^ /u:/






Paul

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