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From: iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Ivan A Derzhanski)
Subject: Re: "consonant harmony" Does it exist?
Message-ID: <D2LuB3.4uv@cogsci.ed.ac.uk>
Organization: Centre for Cognitive Science, Edinburgh, UK
References: <3ejoi1$rqs@rzsun02.rrz.uni-hamburg.de> <1995Jan11.230531.3755@galois.mit.edu> <3f6j6m$8ok@ss1.cam.nist.gov>
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 1995 14:16:11 GMT
Lines: 20

In article <3f6j6m$8ok@ss1.cam.nist.gov> koontz@cam.nist.gov (John E Koontz) writes:
>By analogy with vowel harmony, consonant harmony would invoke
>principles like "all consonants in a word must have the same point of
>articulation" or "all consonants in a word must have the same voicing."

I know for a fact that there is at least one example of consonant harmony,
but I was loath to write about this, because I couldn't for the life of me
recall the title or the author of the paper where I read it.  The language
is the one spoken by the Karaim population of (if memory serves) Lithuania,
and the general idea is that where in the other Turkic languages all vowels
in the word are *front*, in that dialect all consonants are *palatalised*.
So that's consonant harmony derived from vowel harmony, so to say.  I was
hoping someone else would have come across this too and would post some
more precise information.

-- 
`Don't know whit ye're bletherin aboot', said Peter.    (The Glasgow Gospel)
Ivan A Derzhanski (iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk, iad@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu)
* Centre for Cognitive Science,  2 Buccleuch Place,   Edinburgh EH8 9LW,  UK
* Cowan House E113, Pollock Halls, 18 Holyrood Pk Rd, Edinburgh EH16 5BD, UK
