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Vowel Harmony in Proto-Thagojian

From:Paul Bennett <paul-bennett@...>
Date:Friday, July 14, 2006, 20:23
All this talk of vowel harmony has made me think about vowel harmony in
Proto-Thagojian.

First, the old pattern:

Front: i e E
Back: u o O
Neutral: i\ @ 6

Now the new pattern, which is closer to PIE:

All vowels:

i   i\  u
   e   o
     A

Romanization:

i   y   u
   e   o
     a

Harmony groups:

Front: i y e
Back: y u o
Open: e o a

Roots may contain any vowels.

Suffixes have underspecified I U A vowels, which map to the three vowels
of the front, back or open group depending on the last vowel of the root.
If the last vowel is y, e, or o, harmony is based on the previous vowel
with the last vowel as a hint (recursively). If no harmony group can be
established, a word is by default front harmony.

Examples:

lhev- "fame" + -Ant "containing/having" -> lhevent "famous"
soku- "juice" + -Ant -> sokvont "juicy"




Paul