Vatjan vokaalisointu

Väitöskirja. Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Toimituksia 214. 1993. [6] + 300 + [18] s. (ISBN 951-9403-57-4.) 32 €.

This is a corpus-based study of the palato-velar vowel harmony system of the Finno-Ugric Votic language in the light of the markedness theory.

In this almost extinct Baltic-Finnic language spoken in Western Ingria, there are as a rule only back or front vowels in the same non-compound word, with the exception of the front vowel i, which is a neutral vowel and can combine in word-stems with vowels of either group, and of the back vowel o, which can occur as an opaque vowel in non-first syllables instead of the front vowel ö. In addition to nine o-suffixes, there are also ten back-vocalic non-harmonic suffixes mainly with a; the front-vocalic genitive plural ending jē can also occur in words that are otherwise back-vocalic. The harmonic variation in the plural genitive is considerable, while some suffixes (lain and tȫ) have in most cases adapted to the harmony, and after ö in the first syllable, ö is usual in the following syllables. In mixed (Ingrian-Finnish-Votic) idiolects there are more adaptations but also partial lack of e̮ in the non-initial syllables; in the most strongly ingrianized dialect, that of Kukkosi, ö has become common while e̮ has been totally lost. In addition to some non-harmonic expressive words and opaque word-compounds there are also about a thousand recent non-harmonic loan words from Ingrian, Finnish, Estonian and especially from Russian. Most of these loans have non-harmonic e, but there are also some Russian loans with non-harmonic a or o (seldom u). Not many of these loans seem to have really adapted to the harmony; some of the Ingrian-Finnish loans have, however, non-initial ö. Some sound changes have also led to non-harmonic forms especially in the eastern dialects.

The lack of non-initial ö is a feature inherited from Proto-Finnic, but this also has been supported by the fact that adaptation to the harmony would in most suffixes have led to too many instances of allomorphy, because most of the non-harmonic suffixes contain k which would, before front vowels, have developed to tš. Late enclitic development, palatalization, paradigmatic cohesion and stress features have also contributed to the development of Votic vowel harmony, which has been strongly influenced and even triggered by language contacts.