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Re: Question about vowel harmono

From:Frank George Valoczy <valoczy@...>
Date:Thursday, May 3, 2001, 20:01
> So . . . > > i.y u > e.oe o > ae a > > That doesn't seem very balanced to me.
It would more be like this: front: y oe ae neutral: i e back: u o a which is basically what Finnish has; Hungarian doesn't have the /ae/, and Turkish adds dotless-i to show /W/(?) the back counterpart to /i/
> > Are there any other languages that use vowel harmony? What about a > close/open distinction instead of a front/back, so > > i, u, y would be close > o, a, and e would be open >
Interesting, tho I've never heard of any langs like this, tho that doesnt mean they dont exist...
> I'm not sure I understand why there have to be correspondances between one > set of vowels and the other. >
Nor do I, and my native language has vowel harmony. I think basically its for balance.
> If I have the word "isilyth" then the plural affix can be -il, but for > "amon" it would have to be -al. That seems reasonable to me. (Or maybe > -el -- it's more or less an aesthetic decision, seems to me; am I wrong?) >
With the systems I'm familiar with, /-il/ (or even /-ael/) would go with front vowels and /-al/ with back vowels; /-el/ being neutral could go with either. Oftentimes the /-al/ /-ael/ suffix would have one meaning, /-el/ another... -------ferko Ferenc Gy. Valoczy Free British Columbia! Virtual Votia - Vaddjamaa Internetaza: http://www.geocities.com/uralica railways page: http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/3976/ 25kV 50Hz: http://www.mp3.com/25kV50Hz

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Muke Tever <alrivera@...>