con quesa wrote:I have some vowel harmony questions.
In my conlang, < i > <?> <?> are front vowels, <?> <?> <o> < u > are back, and <?> <a> <e> are neutral. There is front/back harmony, although a neutral vowel can be in either group. Normally, the vowels in a root are in the same group as the final vowel in the root: k?nasu is OK, but not *kinasu.
Also, if the last root vowel is a neutral vowel, is it possible for vowel harmony to simply not happen, allowing words like ticuz'a ? Or would the vowels harmonize in a different way, creating tucuz'a or ticiz'a ?
It's your language, you can make your vowel-harmony rules work any way you like.
If you want to make these rules lifelike, you may wish to check out how vowel harmony works in real languages - the most accessible European languages with vowel harmony being Turkish, Finnish and Hungarian. I am no expert on the first two, but can provide a reasonable description of Hungarian.
So, on your questions:
I want suffixes' vowels to also harmonize with the last root vowel, even though if there is a suffix, the last root vowel isn't the last vowel in the word. Can there be such a distinction between a root and a word? Or is this impossible, in the same way as making different sound changes for nouns and verbs?
By suffix, do you mean a derivational suffix (like English -ness, -dom, -ize) or an inflexional suffix (like plural, genitive and 3rd person -(e)s in English)?
In Hungarian, both types may have vowel harmony, and adjust their internal vowel according to the last vowel of the root. It may be a 2-way distinction:
-ban, -ben (in): gy?r-
ban (in the factory) / kert-
ben (in the garden). [NB: there is no hyphen in standard orthography, I insert it for clarity's sake]
It can also be 3-way:
-en, -on, -?n (on): kert-
en (on the garden), h?z-
on (on the house), gy?m?lcs-
?n (on the fruit)
The principle is the same (although may be different in detail) for verbal endings and derivational suffixes:
-ek, -ok, -?k (first person singular, present indicative, indefinite): besz?l-
ek (I speak), ugat-
ok (I bark [why not, can't dogs talk?
]), ?r?l-
?k (I am happy).
-s?g, -s?g (-ness, -ing): k?v?n-
s?g (wish [noun], from
kiv?n-ni [to wish]), v?n-
s?g (extreme old age, from
v?n [very old]).
Also, if the last root vowel is a neutral vowel, is it possible for vowel harmony to simply not happen, allowing words like ticuz'a ?
Normally, when vowel harmony operates, there is no such thing as it not happening. Every possible vowel in the root has its well-defined "forced" correspondent in the endings. However, exceptions may occur, for any number of reasons:
1. There may be a vowel that is historically the coalescence of two (or more) older vowels belonging to more than one vowel class. In Hungarian /i/ is such a vowel - it may be derived from the former front high unrounded vowel /i/ or from the former back high unrounded vowel /?/. The endings may reflect the distinction to this day:
h?d-
ban (in the bridge), but sz?v-
ben (in the heart).
2. Loanwords and compounds may have mixed vowel types, in which case the last vowel is the decisive factor:
beton (cement) - beton-
ban (in the cement)
borj?-b?r (calf-skin) - borj?-b?r-
ben (in the calf-skin)
3. Sometimes root vowels sporadically (i.e. not as part of a regular sound change) change into a vowel in a different class, while the suffix may keep the vowel corresponding to the former class of the root vowel. E.g. in Hungarian:
Root -i- may change to -?- in a labial environment, as f?l (ear), from earlier *fil. The first person possessive for words with root vowel /?/ is normally /-?m/, as in k?rt-
?m (my horn [musical instrument]), yet for f?l it is f?l-
em (my ear), where the ending reflects the original root vowel.
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I hope this answers your question.
Sometimes I've been tempted to create a Uralic conlang, on analogy with my creation of a Romance conlang (Tundrian). It would be a fun way to help me learn Finnish!
Good conlanging, and Happy New Year.