Similarly to the situation for Proto-Indo-European, reconstructions of Proto-Uralic are traditionally not written in IPA but in UPA.
Vowels[]
Proto-Uralic had vowel harmony and a rather large inventory of vowels in initial syllables, much like the modern Finnish or Estonian system:
| Front | Back | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unrounded | Rounded | Unrounded | Rounded | |
| Close | i /i/ | ü /y/ | ï /ɯ/ | u /u/ |
| Close-mid | e /e/ | ö /ø/ | ë /ɤ/ | o /o/ |
| Open-mid | ɛ /ɛ/ | œ /œ/ | ʌ /ʌ/ | ɔ /ɔ/ |
| Open | ä /æ/ | a /ɑ/ | å /ɒ/ | |
Sometimes a mid vowel *ë /ɤ/ is reconstructed in place of *ï, or a low back rounded *å /ɒ/ in place of *a.[1]
There were no monophonemic long vowels nor diphthongs, though sequences of vowel and semivowel within a single syllable (such as *äj) could exist.
Unstressed vowels[]
Vowel inventory in non-initial syllables was restricted: only a two-way contrast of open and non-open vowels is incontestably reconstructible. The actual realization of this contrast is a question of debate: one view considers this two archiphonemic vowels //a// and //i//, realized as four allophones [æ ɑ], [i ɯ] as per vowel harmony.
For the non-open vowel(s), most branches reflect a reduced vowel [ə]; only two branches give evidence for a specific value:
- The Finnic languages show /e/ or /ɤ/ depending on harmony, word-finally /i/.
- The Samic languages show a variety of reflexes, but these reflexes can be traced back to a Proto-Samic phoneme *ë, which is also the reflex of Proto-Uralic *i and *ü in stressed syllables.
While vowel reduction is a common sound change, Finnic is known to have adstrate influence from language groups that would not have known reduced vowels (namely the Baltic languages and the early Germanic languages), so a value of [ə] already in Proto-Uralic remains a possibility.
Although these three or four stem types were certainly the most prominent ones in Proto-Uralic, it is possible that other, rarer types may have existed as well. These include for example kinship terms such as "sister-in-law", found as *kälü in both Proto-Finnic and Proto-Samoyedic. Janhunen (1981) and Sammallahti (1988) reconstruct here instead a word-final labial glide: *käliw.
A general difficulty in reconstructing unstressed vowels for Proto-Uralic lies in their heavy reduction and loss in many of the Uralic languages. Especially in the Ugric and Permic languages, almost no trace of unstressed vowels appears in basic word roots. The original bisyllabic root structure has been well preserved in only the more peripheral groups: Samic and Finnic in the northwest, Samoyedic in the east. The main correspondences of unstressed vowels between these are as follows:
| Proto-Uralic | Proto-Samic | Proto-Finnic | Proto-Samoyedic | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| *-a | *-ē [eː] | *-a [ɑ] | *-å [ɒ] | |
| *-ä | *-ä [æ] | *-ä [æ] | ||
| *-ə | *-ë [ɤ] | *-e | ∅ | after original open syllables |
| *-ə | after original closed syllables |
Developments in Mordvinic and Mari are rather more complicated. In the former, Proto-Uralic *-a and *-ä are usually reduced to *-ə; *-a is however regularly retained whenever the first syllable of the word contained *u. Proto-Uralic *-ə is regularly lost after open syllables, as well as in some other positions.
Conditional vowel shifts[]
A number of roots appear to diverge from the main picture of unstressed syllables in a different way: while Finnic, Samic and Samoyedic languages all have one of the "typical" stem shapes, they may not quite match. Words in these classes often feature discrepancies in the vowels of the first syllable as well, e.g. Finnic *a or *oo (suggesting Proto-Uralic *a or *ë) against Samic *ā (suggesting Proto-Uralic *ä) or *oa (suggesting Proto-Uralic *o).
A number of such cases may result simply from conditional vowel shifts in unstressed syllables. In fact, multiple vowel shifts are reconstructed in branches of Uralic sensitive to a particular combination of stem vowel and following reduced vowel, in which both change at once. A shift *a-ə > *o-a can be posited for Samic as well as the Mordvinic languages. E.g.:
| Proto-Samic | Mordvinic | Proto-Finnic | Proto-Samoyedic | Hungarian | other reflexes | meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| *čoarvē < *ćorwa | Erzya сюро /sʲuro/ Moksha сюра /sʲura/ < *śorwa- |
*sarvi | - | szarv | 'horn' | |
| *čoalē < *ćola | Erzya сюло /sʲulo/ Moksha сюра /sʲula/ < *śola- |
*sooli < *sali | - | [2] | 'intestine' | |
| *koalō- < *kola(w)- | Erzya куло- /kulo-/ Moksha куло- /kulə-/ < *kola- |
*koole- < *kali- | *kåə- | hal | 'to die' | |
| *koamtē < *komta | Erzya and Moksha кунда /kunda/ < *komta |
*kanci < *kanti | - | - | Mari комдыш /komdəʃ/ | 'lid' |
The change is, however, masked by the shift of *ë to *a (which later develops to Proto-Samic *uo) in words such as:
| Proto-Samic | Mordvinic | Proto-Finnic | Proto-Samoyedic | Hungarian | other reflexes | meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| *ńuolë < *ńalə | Erzya, Moksha нал /nal/ | *nooli < *nali | *ńël | nyíl | 'arrow' | |
| *suonë < *sanə | Erzya, Moksha сан /san/ | *sooni < *sani | *cën | ín | 'vein, sinew' | |
| *θuomë < *δamə | Erzya лём /lʲom/ Moksha лайме /lajmɛ/ |
*toomi < *tami | *jëm | - | 'bird cherry' | |
| *vuoptë < *aptə | - | *(h)apci < *apti | *ëptə | - | 'hair' |
In a second group, a change *ä-ä > *a-e appears to have taken place in Finnic in words such as:
| Proto-Finnic | Proto-Samic | Proto-Samoyedic | Hungarian | other reflexes | meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| *loomi < *lami | - | - | - | Erzya леме /lʲeme/ | 'scab' |
| *pooli < *pali | *pealē | *pälä | fél | Erzya пеле /pelʲe/ | 'half' |
| *sappi | *sāppē | - | epe | Erzya сэпе /sepe/ | 'gall' |
| *talvi | *tālvē | - | tél | Erzya теле /tʲelʲe/ | 'winter' |
| *vaski | *veaškē | *wäsa | vas | Mari -вож /βoʒ/ 'ore' | 'copper, bronze' ~ 'iron' |
Consonants[]
In the consonant system, palatalization, or palatal-laminal instead of apical articulation, was a phonemic feature, as it is in many modern Uralic languages. Only one series of stops (unvoiced unaspirated) existed:
| Bilabial | Dental | Palatal(ized) | Postalveolar | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive and Affricate |
voiceless | p /p/ | t /t/ | ć /t͡sʲ ~ t͡ɕ/ | č /t̠͡ʃ/ | k /k/ | ´ /ʔ/ |
| voiced | b /b/ | d /d/ | c /d͡zʲ ~ d͡ʑ/ | ʒ /d͡ʒ/ | g /ɡ/ | ||
| Nasal | m /m/ | n /n/ | ń /nʲ ~ ɲ/ | ŋ /ŋ/ | |||
| Sibilant | voiceless | s /s/ | ś /sʲ ~ ɕ/ | š /ʃ/ | |||
| voiced | z /z/ | ź /zʲ ~ ʑ/ | ž /ʒ/ | ||||
| Spirants | voiceless | f /ɸ/ | y /θ/ | y´ /θʲ/ | x /x/ | h /h/ | |
| voiced | v /β/ | δ /ð/ | δ´ /ðʲ/ | ɣ /ɣ/ | |||
| Lateral | l /l/ | ľ /lʲ ~ ʎ/ | ł /ʟ/ | ||||
| Trill | ř /ʙ/ | r /r/ | ŕ /rʲ/ | ||||
| Semivowel | w /w/ | j /j/ | q /ɰ/ | ||||
The phonetic nature of the segment symbolized by *x is uncertain, though it is usually considered a back consonant; [x], [ɣ], [ɡ], and [h] have been suggested among others. Janhunen (1981, 2007) takes no explicit stance, leaving open the option for even a vocalic value. The segment has some similarity to the Indo-European laryngeals (to which it can correspond in loanwords): it is reconstructed by certain scholars in syllable-final position in word-stems where a contrastive long vowel later developed (similar to Turkish ğ), best preserved in the Finnic languages, and where Samoyedic features a vowel sequence such as *åə. The correlation between these two stem classes is however not perfect, and alternate possibilities exist for explaining both vowel length in Finnic and vowel sequences in Samoyedic. *x is also reconstructed word-medially, and in this position it also develops to a Finnic long vowel, but has clear consonantal reflexes elsewhere: *k in Samic, *j in Mordvinic and *ɣ in Ugric. If a consonant, it probably derives from lenition of *k at a pre-Uralic stage; it is only found in words ending in a non-open vowel, while *k is infrequent or nonexistent in similar positions.
The phonetical identity of the consonant *δ´ is also subject to some doubt. It is traditionally analyzed as the palatalized counterpart of the voiced dental fricative *δ, that is, as [ðʲ]; however, this a typologically rare sound value for which no direct evidence is found in any Uralic language, and a pure palatal fricative [ʝ] is another option; a third option is a palatal liquid like, e. g., Czech ř. Some others propose to adjust the sound values of both this consonant and its plain counterpart. Ugricist László Honti has advanced a reconstruction with lateral fricatives: [ɬ], [ɬʲ] for *δ, *δ´, while Frederik Kortlandt reconstructs palatalized [rʲ] and [lʲ], alleging that they pattern like resonants.[3]
Dubious segments[]
The phonemes in parentheses—*ć, *š, *ĺ—are supported by only limited evidence, and are not assumed by all scholars. Sammallahti (1988) notes that while instances of *ć are found in all three of Permic, Hungarian and Ob-Ugric, there are "very few satisfactory etymologies" showing any correlation between the branches in whether *ć or *ś appears. In the other languages, no consistent distinction between these consonants is found. The evidence for the postalveolar sibilant *š however is "scarce but probably conclusive" (ibid): it is treated distinctly from *s only in the more western (Finno-Permic) languages, but certain loans from as far back as the Proto-Indo-European language have reflexes traceable to a postalveolar fricative (including *piši- or *peši- "to cook"). The possibility of *ĺ is not considered by him at all. In contrast, Janhunen, who considers Samoyedic evidence necessary for conclusions about Proto-Uralic, doubts that *š can be reconstructed, preferring to consider it a secondary, post-Proto-Uralic innovation (p. 210). He agrees with Sammallahti in omitting *ĺ and in only considering a single palatal obstruent as necessary to reconstruct; for the latter he suggests the sound value of a palatal stop, [c] (p. 211).
Phonotactics[]
No initial or final consonant clusters were allowed, so words could begin and end with a maximum of one consonant only. The single consonants *δ *r *x *ŋ also could not occur word-initially, though at least for the first of these, this may be an coincidental omission in the data. A reconstruction *δäpδä "spleen" exists but is not found in Samoyedic and the most stringent criteria for a Proto-Uralic root thus exclude it. A similar case is *repä "fox", a loanword from Indo-Iranian.
Inside word roots, only clusters of two consonants were permitted. Since *j and *w were consonants even between a vowel and another consonant, there were no sequences of a "diphthong" followed by two consonants, like in e.g. Finnish veitsi. While voicing was not a phonemic feature, double (i.e. geminate) stops probably existed (*ïppi "father-in-law", *witti "five", *lükkä- "to push"). The singleton–geminate contrast in most descendant languages developed into a voiced–voiceless distinction, although Finnic is a notable exception, e.g. Finnish appi, lykkää.
When, due to suffixation, consonant clusters arose that were not permitted, the non-low vowel was inserted as a prop vowel. This process was obscured in the Finnic languages by an opposing process which syncopated unstressed *e in many cases.
Prosody[]
Proto-Uralic did not have tones, which contrasts with Yeniseian and some Siberian languages. Neither was there contrastive stress as in Indo-European; in Proto-Uralic the first syllable was invariably stressed.
Phonological processes[]
Consonant gradation may have occurred already in Proto-Uralic: if it did, it was probably a phonetical alternation involving allophonic voicing of the stop consonants: [p] ~ [b], [t] ~ [d], [k] ~ [g].[4]
References[]
- ↑ Janhunen 1981a pp. 24–25
- ↑ Possibly szál 'thread'
- ↑ https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/14514685.pdf
- ↑ Helimski, Eugene. Proto-Uralic gradation: Continuation and traces – In: Congressus Octavus Internationalis Fenno-Ugristarum. Pars I: Orationes plenariae et conspectus quinquennales. Jyväskylä, 1995.