Re: Vowel Harmony Asthetically Pleasing?

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]