Full Description
Vowel harmony is a well known phonological phenomenon found in a large number of languages spoken mainly in Eurasia and the African continent. In simple terms, vowel harmony is a law which governs the co-occurrence of vowels within a span of utterance, nearly always the word. The contributions of this volume focus on various (not always uncontroversial) aspects of vowel harmony that include typological investigations, phonetic/acoustic experimental studies, descriptions of individual systems, genetic and historical ramifications, and implications for a variety of theoretical models. This volume will prove to be a useful guide to the multifaceted issues posed by an often discussed and quite significant phonological process. This volume will stimulate further discussion and better understanding of the issues raised by the intricate process called vowel harmony.
Contents
1. Introduction; 2. Problems and Perspectives in the Description of Vowel Harmony (by Anderson, Stephen R.); 3. A Formal Theory of Vowel Harmony (by Vergnaud, Jean-Roger); 4. Issues in the Description of Turkish Vowel Harmony (by Crothers, John); 5. Regular Disharmony in Kirghiz (by Johnson, C. Douglas); 6. Mongolian Vocalic Features and the Problem of Harmony (by Hamp, Eric P.); 7. The Underlying Representation of Harmonizing Vowels: Evidence from Modern Mongolian (by Binnick, Robert I.); 8. A Concrete Analysis of Hungarian Vowel Harmony (by Ringen, Catherine O.); 9. A Critique of Suprasegmental Theories of Vowel Harmony (by Vago, Robert M.); 10. Voice-Quality Harmony in Western Nilotic Languages (by Jacobson, Leon C.); 11. Nez Perce Vowel Harmony: An Africanist Explanation and some Theoretical Questions (by Hall, Beatrice L.); 12. Vowel Harmony and Morphophonemic Rules (by Picard, Marc); 13. The Psychological and Sociological Reality of Finnish Vowel Harmony (by Campbell, Lyle); 14. Using Asymmetrical and Gradient Data in the Study of Vowel Harmony (by Anderson, Lloyd B.)
