Re: a question concerning voicing harmony and vowels

Vasiliy Chernov sikayal:

> Why? Assimilations in opposite directions are common even with same group
> of phonemes. E. g. in Ancient Greek stops, aspiration spreads from left to
> right, (un)voicing from right to left.
Are you sure?  All of the Greek assimilations that I know of spread right
to left.  E.g:

Voicing:
peprag+mai > pepragmai
peprag+sai > pepraksai
prag+to: > prakto: > pratto:

Aspiration:
e+blab+the:n > eblaphthe:n

Aspirate dissimilation:
the+thu+ka > tethuka

I can't think of any that go the other way.

Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu

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