Re: Vowel Harmony Asthetically Pleasing?

Isaac wrote:
> The Linguistic Encyclopedic Dictionary I have (in Russian, 1990) says that
> there is a different kind of vowel harmony - "compactness harmony" in some
> Niger-Congo (Kwa group) and some Nilotic lgs (Dinka, Nuer). This means the
> word can have only tense (fortis?) vowels like /i/, /u/ or lax (lenis?)
> ones like /I/, /U/ etc.
This is in English called ATR-harmony, for 'advanced tongueroot'.  It is
believed that all languages with ATR systems also have ATR harmony.
Although acoustically [-ATR] vowels sound similar to Germanic-style
lax vowels /I E O/ etc., they are articulatorily different, and so
one should not speak of fortis vs. lenis vowels.

> #1 wrote:
> > Are there "consonant Hamonies" ??
> > maybe it is a kind of consonant hamony when, in english, the final
> > -ed is voiced or not to fit with the last consonant...
>
> I heard this term used to describe some (similar) phonological processes
> in Turkish that I would have classified as assimilation (progressive or
> regressive).
Consonant harmony is well-known.  We discussed this back in July of 2004.
Do a websearch for Gunnar Hansson's dissertation, which is all about
consonant harmony.

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Thomas Wier	       "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
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Chicago, IL 60637

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