Re: THEORY: vowel harmony [was CHAT: Another NatLang i like]

On Thu, 24 Jun 1999, dirk elzinga wrote:

>
> These vowels belong to one of two sets: R={i, ae, u} and D={i, a, o}
> such that if a morpheme contains any vowel of set D, then all vowels
> within the harmonic domain (=word) are of set D. Otherwise, all vowels
> are of set R. (Note that the intersection of the vowel sets is not
> empty since [i] is found in both of them.) What is interesting about
> this harmony pattern is that there is no obvious phonetic correlate to
> harmony; that is, there doesn't seem to be any one feature which
> triggers harmony (well, there really is, but it's a strange, twisted
> tale, and I fear I'm testing your patience already :-).
>
On the contrary - you're whetting our appetite for more!

Boudewijn Rempt  | http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt