Vowel harmony systems in different languages involve backness, rounding, and consonantal influence.
Finnish has front/back vowel harmony with exceptions for borrowed words.
Mongolian has complex vowel harmony involving ATR, rounding, and regressive/blocking patterns.
Deep dives
Turkish Vowel Harmony
Turkish has a vowel harmony system where vowels in affixes are influenced by vowels in the stem. Backness and rounding harmony are the main features involved. For example, the genitive suffix 'in' changes its vowel depending on the preceding vowel in the stem. The suffix 'in' becomes 'on' if the stem has a back vowel, but becomes 'in' if the stem has a front vowel. Turkish also has some exceptions, such as certain consonants affecting vowel harmony.
Finnish Vowel Harmony
Finnish has a vowel harmony system where vowels in suffixes are influenced by vowels in the stem. The system includes front and back harmony, but also has neutral vowels that do not participate in the harmony. For example, the suffix 'lla' changes its vowel based on the preceding vowel in the stem. It becomes 'lla' after back vowels, but becomes 'lää' after front vowels. Finnish also has exceptions, such as borrowed words that do not follow the usual harmony rules.
Mongolian Vowel Harmony
Mongolian has a vowel harmony system that includes both ATR (advanced tongue root) and rounding harmony. The tense and lax vowels participate in the harmony, while the length of the vowels does not affect it. There is also a neutral vowel, 'e', that allows harmony to pass through it. The harmony can be regressive or blocking, depending on the specific vowels involved. Mongolian's vowel harmony system is complex and can be challenging to master.
Overview of Vowel Harmony
Vowel harmony is discussed as a feature in conlang creation. The hosts encourage conlangers to try different types of vowel harmony, such as front/back harmony or rounding harmony. They highlight that vowel harmony can add uniqueness and complexity to a language, and suggest looking into natural languages with vowel harmony for inspiration.
Examples of Vowel Harmony
The hosts provide examples of vowel harmony in natural languages, discussing the vowel harmony system in Finnish and its similarity to Turkish. They also mention a conlang called Tumada that employs vowel harmony based on frontness. The hosts emphasize the importance of understanding irregularities and historical sound changes in vowel harmony systems, and encourage conlangers to experiment and have fun with creating their own vowel harmony systems.
Today we talk to you all about vowel harmony, taking Turkish, Finnish, Moro, and Mongolian as case studies to help you figure out the intricacies of what choices you need to make in vowel harmony systems and how you can introduce interesting Top of Show Greeting: Maksinaunminverbe Links and Resources: Distinctive Feature Chart Vowel Systems Info... Read more »
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