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Re: Vowel Harmony Asthetically Pleasing?

From:Isaac Penzev <isaacp@...>
Date:Tuesday, December 28, 2004, 9:48
Thomas R. Wier wrote:


> 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'.
As you can see from the quotation above, this passage is a rough translation from Russian. And it clearly shows different terminology in different schools. Thank you for pointing to a normal English term.
> 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.
Well, phonetics is my weaker spot (I specialized in diachronic morphology), so again thank you for clarification. I used terms "fortis" and "lenis" with question mark, since I felt dubious about them. But then, the words "tense" and "lex" are precise equivalents to Russian "напряженный" and "ненапряженный" terms. I was only quoting ;) IIRC, ATR harmony is found in Tungusic langs too, isn't it? Unfortunately, web info is rather scarse, and I have no time to visit a library. 5 volumes of "Yazyki narodov SSSR" is a precious source of information an inspiration. Friendly yours, -- Yitzik "There are no problems that cannot be solved; just some solutions are unpleasant." [anonymous]