Vowel harmony
The vowel harmony (also Synharmonismus ) is a phonological process in which several vowels with respect to certain characteristics are matched to one another.
Introduction
In a broader sense, the vocal harmony is any approximation to the articulation of vowels or the manner of articulation of another vowel. It is a process of assimilation. The emergence of the German umlauts falls into this category.
The process, like other assimilation processes also tied to specific domains, in most cases at the phonological word. In some languages it is possible that only certain vowels harmonize, while others are transparent to the process, which means that these vowels are not subject to the process of vowel harmony.
In most cases, the vowel harmony affects the characteristics of rounded / unrounded or closed / open.
Examples of vowel harmony
In Turkish there are two different allomorphs to indicate the plural, namely - ler and - lar. The choice depends on the last of the allomorph of the preceding vowel in syllable - lar follows a, i, o and u; - ler at e, i, ö and ü. So it is, for example, " ev - evler " ( house - houses), but " kitap - kitaplar " (Book - books). The same applies to the infinitive of a verb indicating suffix- mek ( gelmek - come ) or - mak ( konuşmak - speak ). This represents the so-called small vocal harmony ( küçük sesliler uyumu ) dar.
Rule of thumb: letters with dots above it ( ö, ü, i and additionally e [cf e = e] ) in the final syllable gets the ending - ler or - mek.
The Great Vowel harmony ( büyük sesliler uyumu ) distinguishes four instead of two cases: in the suffix will not be a or e, but i, ı, ü or u used, according to the following rule:
Finnish
Finnish has three classes of vowels:
According to the rule vowels from group 3 with vocals from one of the two other groups may be combined. However, vowels of groups 1 and 2 may not occur in the same word. This means that training as tyttö, " katselmus " and lyönti satisfy the phonotactic rules of Finnish, " kätselmus " and * tytto is not.
For compositions of this rule may be violated; the suffixes are then fitted to the rear. Come only vowels of Group 3 in the word before, is usually used the suffix for the first group.
Tatar
As a Turkic language such as Turkish Tatar also has a distinctive vocal harmony, which affects suffixes and postpositions: bala - lar - children, ani - tacular - mothers; bala -si - his child, ani - se - his mother; bala - siz -li - childless, Aeti - sez -le - fatherless.
Other languages
Among the languages with vowel harmony include, for example, Turkic, Finno- Ugric languages , Mongolian languages , Tungusic languages , Korean ( according to some theories belonging to the Tungusic languages or descended ), but also some African languages such as Tangale and some Bantu languages.
Swell
- Semrau, Richard: Langenscheidts Practical textbook Finnish. Langenscheidt, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-468-26140-3.
- Hall, Tracy Alan: phonology - An Introduction. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-11-015641-5.
- Fortunately, Helmut (ed.): Metzler Lexikon Sprache. 3 edition. JB Metzler'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-476-02056-8 ( entry vowel harmony, p 727).