On Wed, 18 Jun 2003 09:54:53 +0100 Peter Bleackley
<Peter.Bleackley@...> writes:
> Staving Rob Haden:
> >What are some ways to develop a front/back vowel harmony system?
> I'm
> >thinking about possibly doing this for my language, developing from
> an
> >earlier vowel inventory of {a e i o u}.
> You could start by pairing up your vowels by height as
> [i]/[u]
> [e]/[o]
> [&]/[a]
> One or other of the low vowels is a new allophone created by the
> vowel harmony system.
> Pete
-
Or couldn't the /a/ just be immune to the vowel harmony? I seem to
remember hearing about languages with harmony systems where some of the
phonemes aren't locked into the system, so /a/ could be a 'free-range
vowel' that can go with both front and back vowels.
-Stephen (Steg)
"this irritated her, which irritated her."
~ 'melancholy elephants' by spider robinson