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Re: Takiyyudin phonology

From:David J. Peterson <dedalvs@...>
Date:Thursday, July 13, 2006, 9:33
Tristan wrote:
<<
Harmony
generally works from in a single direction only, from the inside to
the outside.
 >>

Perhaps commonly, but not generally.  Here's a link to a paper
by Larry Hyman which shows some examples of what I was talking
about in my first reply:

http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/~hyman/Hyman_Kalong_VH_Paper.pdf

Leaving the tone diacritics out, there's a language Kalong that
has a causative suffix [i] specified as [+ATR].  When added to words
where all the vowels are [+ATR], it works as expected (again, the
glosses are in French, for some reason):

kuJim + -i = kuJimi "perdre qqch."
kuenep + - i = kuenepi "noircir" (sp?)

If the vowels of the root are [-ATR], the suffix forces them to
change:

kuEj + -i = kueji "changer qqn."
kusOt + -i = kusoti "sauver" (from "vivre", so "cause to live")

This would be affix to stem harmony.  However, in the very same
language, there is also stem to affix harmony (note: /a/ is [-ATR]
and [-high, +low]):

kufen + -a = kufene "dedaigner"
kusEl + -a = kusElE "eplucher"
kupos + -a = kuposo "aboyer"
kukOk + -a = kukOkO "tirer"

Also some examples from root to prefix:

ma- + pe = mepe "machination"
ma- + pEnE = mEpEnE "lait"
ma- + jojo = mojojo "safoutiers"
ma- = jOjO = mOjOjO "bave"

Bunch of other stuff going on in this language.  This is a good
article to reference for crazy vowel harmony stuff.

-David
*******************************************************************
"A male love inevivi i'ala'i oku i ue pokulu'ume o heki a."
"No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn."

-Jim Morrison

http://dedalvs.free.fr/

Replies

Tristan Alexander McLeay <conlang@...>
Shreyas Sampat <ssampat@...>