The law of synharmonism is the rule. Syllable synharmonism

1.2.5. Phonetic processes of the Proto-Slavic period

Key words: paleoslavic studies, Old Russian language, language system, Proto-Slavic language, phonetic processes, Proto-Slavic period

Tendency towards ascending sonority

Throughout the Proto-Slavic era, a number of changes took place in the language, very different in appearance, but based on one common trend, which can be characterized as upward tendency- establishment of a mandatory distribution of sounds within a syllable in accordance with their acoustic-articulatory characteristics on the principle of increasing the sonority of each subsequent sound.

This tendency was noted by F. F. Fortunatov, who wrote about the desire of the language in the pre-Slavic era to “avoid”. However, this explanation was incomplete, one-sided, since it said nothing about the fate of the consonant groups. A broader interpretation of this phenomenon was given by N. Van Wijk, considering it as a tendency to construct a syllable according to the principle of ascending sonority, that is, to establish a mandatory distribution of sounds in a syllable in accordance with their acoustic-articulatory characteristics according to the principle of increasing the sonority of each subsequent sound: the establishment of a mandatory progression from weaker to stronger.

It is the action of the tendency towards ascending sonority that determines such phonetic processes as:

loss of final consonants;
simplification of consonant groups;
reorganization of syllables;
monophthongization of diphthongs and diphthong combinations;
the fate of diphthong combinations with nasal consonants;
changing combinations of vowels with smooth consonants

Sonority is determined by a number of factors: work vocal cords, the degree of tension of the articulatory organs, greater or lesser density of the barrier during the articulation of consonants.

The trend itself remains unexplained. It is obvious that it did not happen right away. It is possible that the tendency towards ascending sonority, which began to take effect in the language, determined certain phonetic changes, the results of which, in turn, strengthened the tendency, causing the need for further changes. Apparently, the initial impulse of the trend was the desire of the language to maximize contrast vowels and consonants. The full implementation of this tendency, which was not achieved, should have led to the fact that all consonants would be in an intervocalic position, and all vowels in an interconsonantal position (i.e., to structures like CVCV or VCVC). Nevertheless, groups of consonants have been preserved, and certain hierarchical relationships develop within them, which are manifested in clear and strict rules of compatibility within one syllable.

The effect of “tendency to ascending sonority” was functionally connected with another phonetic tendency of the Proto-Slavic period - the tendency of syllabic synharmonism; there was a certain typological similarity between them.

Rules for the compatibility of consonants within consonantal groups in the Proto-Slavic period

In the Proto-Slavic period, as a result of the tendency towards ascending sonority, certain hierarchical relationships developed within consonant groups, regulating the possible order of consonants depending on their quality - clear and strict rules for the combination of consonants within one syllable.

Was especially important word start position due to its stability, determined by the fact that it is the beginning of the word that is associated with the root, with the main carrier of the lexical meaning. At the beginning of a word in the Proto-Slavic period the following combinations of consonants were possible:

Thus, at the beginning of a word there is a clear regulation of the compatibility of consonants, which has not yet spread to other positions. At the beginning of a word, a certain phonemic rhythm arises in the organization of the consonantal group. As a result, the following sequence of consonants and syllables is established at the beginning of the word: fricative – stop – sonorant(including And ) – syllabic. This sequence becomes a model for the structure of consonantal groups and syllabics in other parts of the word.

In position end of the word there is a loss of final consonants.

In position middle of a word in solas groups, various changes occur, which could be accompanied by changes in syllabic boundaries, which allowed sounds within one syllable to line up according to the principle of ascending sonority.

Law of syllabic synharmony

A number of phonetic processes of the Proto-Slavic era (consonants), as well as some processes of the earlier, Proto-Slavic period (the fate of labialized vowels in combination with *j) are the result of a single trend called tendencies towards syllabic synharmony. Its essence is that sounds within one syllable had to be articulatory close to each other. The syllable sought to line up according to the following models: non-palatal consonant + non-front vowel; palatal consonant + vowel front row . The quality of sounds within one syllable in in this case can be described in terms.

Because of this, in words that contradicted this trend, corresponding changes took place aimed at localizing the syllable in a single articulatory zone:

forward movement of vowel articulation under the influence of consonant palatality;
palatalization of a consonant under the influence of a front vowel or [j].

In contrast to the earlier, Proto-Slavic period, characterized by a different syllable structure, there arises active interaction between sounds within one syllable, intensive and palatalization.

There is a certain connection between the two main phonetic trends of the Proto-Slavic era, which determined the phonetic system of the dialect that formed the basis of the Old Slavic language, as well as the formation of the phonetic systems of other Slavic languages - the tendency towards ascending sonority and the law of syllabic synharmonism.

Typological similarities between the two main trends of the Proto-Slavic period

The main phonetic trends of the Proto-Slavic period are the tendency towards ascending sonority and the law of syllabic synharmony. There is a certain typological similarity between them:

Both trends were aimed at transforming a syllable into a single integral structure, at automating and unifying the articulatory program within one syllable; the tendency towards ascending sonority produces strict order sequence of segments in a syllable. The tendency towards syllabic synharmony determined a single zone of articulation within a syllable (front - non-front).
It can be considered that the tendency towards ascending sonority largely determined the effect of the tendency towards syllabic synharmonism, since it was this that led to the unification of vowels and consonants within a syllable into a single integral structure, which created the prerequisites for syntagmatic interaction between them, to their maximum. This statement is supported by the fact that all changes associated with syllabic synharmony occur within a new syllable, already built according to the principle of ascending sonority. There is practically no impact across the boundaries of the syllable division. The exception is the third palatalization of velar consonants, but this phenomenon is quite late.

Qualitative differentiation of long and short vowel phonemes

In the Proto-Slavic language, quantitative oppositions in the vowel system, characteristic of the original vocal system, begin to gradually be lost. This was a long process that was completed in the history of individual Slavic languages.

Original vowels	Duration	Sl.-sl. vowels
a, o		[o]
a, o		[a]
*e
*e		[ê]
*u		[ъ]
*u		[y]
*i		[b]
*i		[i]

Thus, the quantitative opposition of the vowels of the original phonetic system in Proto-Slavic was lost. However, since Proto-Slavic vowels go back to vowels contrasted in duration and shortness, it can be assumed that vowels of different origin retained quantitative characteristics in the phonetic systems of both Proto-Slavic and Old Church Slavonic languages.

Origin of the vowel [o]

Probably, in the Proto-Slavic period, in place of the Indo-European short * - *, only one short vowel [o] was known: the Slavic [o] corresponds to * - * in others:

Origin of the vowel [a]

Probably, in the Proto-Slavic period, in place of the Indo-European long * - *, only one long vowel [a] was known: Slavic [a] corresponds to * - * in others:

Origin of the vowel [e]

The Indo-European short vowel does not undergo qualitative changes in the Proto-Slavic period:

Origin of the vowel

The fate of the Indo-European long vowel after hard and soft consonants was different. After hard consonants it gave , and after soft consonants it coincided with ["a]:

Usually different fate after hard and soft consonants is explained by dispalatalization [’], [’]. Wed:

Origin of the vowel [ъ]

Indo-European * in corresponded to the vowel [ъ]:

In some endings, Slavic [ъ] comes from *, developed from Indo-European * in the position of the final closed syllable:

Origin of the vowel [y]

Indo-European * in the Proto-Slavic language corresponded to the vowel [y] if it was located before a consonant and at the end of a word:

Origin of the vowel [ь]

In place of the original phonetic system in Proto-Slavic we have the vowel [ь]:

Origin of the vowel [i]

Indo-European [i] in the Proto-Slavic language is preserved without any qualitative changes:

Rearrangement of syllables

In the Proto-Slavic language, the pattern according to which noisy ones could not cover a syllable extended to the syllables in the middle of a word. Under the influence of the tendency towards ascending sonority in the middle of a word, a re-decomposition of syllables occurs: the noisy consonants that covered the syllable everywhere move to the next syllable, i.e. syllables became open:

As a result, consonants that were previously in different syllables are now combined within one syllable and began to form phonetic combinations, which had to be built according to the rules governing the construction of consonantal groups. In such groups of consonants, various changes occur, which in general can be characterized as a simplification of consonantal groups.

Simplification of consonant groups

Under the influence of the tendency towards ascending sonority in the Proto-Slavic period, certain rules were formed regulating the possible order of consonant sounds within consonantal groups in the middle of a word. Consonant groups that did not comply with these rules were subject to simplification:

Consonantal groups consisting of plosive consonants different places of education, lost the first consonant:

“stop+fricative”: simplification of the group was in favor of the spirant:

*ks > *kch >

BUT:

*kst >

“explosive + nasal”: simplification was due to the first sound

“nasal+nasal”: as a rule, the first consonant was lost:

“labial + labial”: simplification was carried out due to the loss of the second consonant:

“*tl, *dl”: the fate of these combinations in Slavic languages was different. This indicates that the process occurred later than others and its results reflected dialect differences:

Southern and oriental languages	Western languages

Monophthongization of diphthongs

Diphthongs, inherited from the Proto-Slavic era, contradicted the tendency towards ascending sonority: in their composition, a more sonorous element (a syllabic vowel) preceded a less sonorous non-syllabic vowel. On Proto-Slavic soil they underwent monophthongization, the result of which depended on the diphthong in the word form.

If the diphthong turned out to be before a vowel, then the diphthong split into two elements and its non-syllabic component went to the next syllable:

In the same time before a consonant and at the end of a word the diphthong retained its integrity. What is important in this case is that, based on the formation new structure syllable, a prerequisite arises for a more intense interaction of sounds within the syllable, their assimilation. This is further aggravated by the functional unity of the diphthong, which ultimately led to assimilative fusion of its components: a non-syllabic semivowel sound merged with a syllabic vowel:

The loss of diphthongs led to significant changes in the phonetic system.

The fate of diphthong combinations with nasal vowels

The fate of diphthong combinations with [n], inherited from the Proto-Slavic era, is similar to the fate of diphthongs: they remained in the position before vowels(having survived the split into two elements and redistribution among syllables), but changed before consonants and at the end of a word form: They became monophthongized by assimilative fusion. At the same time, the nasal element, assimilating with the vowel, imparted a nasal overtone to the latter, resulting in the formation of long nasal vowels.

In the Old Slavonic era, 2 nasal vowels were reflected:

In a number of cases, nasalization did not occur in the position of the end of the word; the influence of the position of the end of the word could lead to a narrowing of the vowel, a change in its series and, which prevented the formation of a nasal vowel. An example is the formation of endings of the 1st person singular. numbers and 3rd person plural. aorist numbers:

The change in diphthong combinations with nasal vowels had an impact on the phonetic system (new alternations arose).

Changes in the phonetic system of the Proto-Slavic language due to the monophthongization of diphthongs and diphthong combinations

As a result of the monophthongization of diphthongs and similar changes in diphthong combinations, the following changes occurred in the phonetic system of the Proto-Slavic period:

Changing combinations of vowels with smooth consonants

The tendency towards ascending sonority was not consistent with diphthong combinations with smooth sonorant consonants [r] and [l]. These diphthong combinations were influenced by the tendency, but its implementation was hampered by the much lower ability to assimilate [r] and [l], compared to the nasal consonants and and. Therefore, they were still preserved during the period of monophthongization of diphthongs, however, under the influence of all previous processes, the position of the end of the word begins to be perceived exclusively as the position of a vowel (and not a consonant or diphthong). Within the tendency towards ascending sonority, the law of open syllables is formed, as if bringing the tendency to its full realization.

Under new conditions, combinations with smooth ones are recognized as closed syllables with descending sonority, which are subject to removal as inappropriate to the basic systemic phonetic patterns. In this sense, the change in combinations with smooth ones is the pinnacle of the realization of the tendency towards ascending sonority.

The fate of diphthong combinations with smooth ones developed differently depending on the following factors:

the quality of the syllabic vowel in combination;
position of the beginning or middle of a word;
the quality of the sound that came after the combination (vowel or consonant).

If the combination was in a position before the vowel, then, according to the general tendency to re-decompose syllables, there was a change in the boundary of the syllable division, and, as a consequence, a redistribution of vowels and consonants between syllables:

After the completion of changes in combinations with smooth ones, the principle that arose within the framework of the tendency towards ascending sonority turned out to be fully realized: it did not appear in the language. On the other hand, the opening of syllables is the result of the full realization and completion of the tendency towards ascending sonority.

The fate of diphthong combinations with smooth ones in the middle of a word between consonants

Changing diphthong combinations with smooth ones in the middle of a word between consonants (combinations like , where t- any consonant) was reflected differently in Slavic languages.

The similarity of the results of changes in combinations like *tort in the eastern languages and the western languages of the Lechitic group can be explained by a certain convergence between these dialects in a certain period.

The results of changes in diphthong combinations with smooth combinations of the type *tort > trat are usually called discordance, and those of the type *tort > torot - complete consonance.

There are different opinions in the literature regarding the explanation of the mechanism of these changes.

The diphthong combinations with smooth incomplete consonances that developed in place of them coincided with the original combinations that were located between consonants in one morpheme in words like .

To distinguish between these combinations, one should remember that the original ones sound the same in all Slavic languages; if a word contains incomplete consonance, which developed as a result of the transformation of a diphthong combination with a smooth one, then in other Slavic languages it will correspond to other combinations of sounds (in particular, complete consonance in Eastern Slavs Chinese languages).

Explanation of the mechanism of changes in diphthong combinations with smooth ones

Some researchers (for example, R. Nachtigal) believed that, due to the impossibility of convincingly explaining the mechanism of change in combinations like *trt, etc., only the initial and final stages of development should be recorded. F. F. Fortunatov connected the history of these diphthong combinations with which element of the combination the length of the syllable was focused on. He showed that in the languages of the Southern Slavs, also among the Czechs and Slovaks, the length of the syllable was focused on the vowel, therefore changes like *trt > *trt occurred, and then, to eliminate the closedness of the syllable, the elements of the diphthong combination were redistributed between different syllables: *trt > *t -rt. In this case, positional syllabification of the smooth *t--t arose, but it was unstable due to brevity, as a result of which the vowel was lengthened: *trt. In the languages of the eastern and northwestern (Lehitic) languages, longitude was concentrated on the second element of the diphthong - on the smooth [r], [l] - and was lost due to the development of the vocal element after the smooth: *trt > *t-rt > *t --t > *tr o t. This vowel was similar to the vowel that comes before the smooth one. Next, the vowels were quantitatively equalized *tor o t > tor o t. In the Lekhite dialects, the development of a normal vowel after the smooth one was associated with the reduction and later disappearance of the vowel before the smooth one.

The fate of combinations r, l at the beginning of a word

The fate of diphthong combinations *r, *l at the beginning of a word before consonants (in a root or prefix) is different from the fate of these combinations in the middle of a word.

Pregnant before vowels the combinations did not change, since the smooth consonant moved away to the beginning of the next syllable, and both sounds remained in the original sequence:

In the same situation before consonants under the influence of the tendency towards ascending sonority, these diphthong combinations underwent changes:

In the few words of the ancestors of the Southern Slavs, another result arose: a metathesis occurred without lengthening the vowel: *rt > rt: in the Suprasl manuscript, reflecting the features of the dialects of eastern Bulgaria, along with , we find:

The language of the ancestors of the Bulgarians reflected another trend - after a smooth development [ъ]: *lt > lъt:

It is assumed that the metathesis in the initial *rt, *lt occurred later than similar changes in combinations like *trt.

After the completion of changes in combinations with smooth ones, the principle, within the framework of the previously formed tendency towards ascending sonority, turned out to be fully realized: it did not remain in the language.

Combinations of smooth consonants with reduced vowels ,

Combinations of smooth consonants with reduced vowels in the position between the consonants *trt, *tlt, *trt, *tlt did not correspond to the tendency towards ascending sonority.

IN Old Slavonic language the sequence “smooth consonant + reduced vowel” denoted sounds that were different both in quality and origin:

The facts of the modern Russian language help to distinguish between these spellings.

Syllabicity is already developing on Slavic soil. As is known, the syllabic consonants of the original phonetic system were lost in the Proto-Slavic period. We can assume the following pattern of development of syllabicity by smooth ones, reflecting the transition to reduced super-short [ь], [ъ], as well as their subsequent assimilation with smooth ones:

Syllabic consonants developed in the southern and a number of western Slavic dialects (Czech and Slovak areas). In the eastern and northwestern dialects, the final stage - the development of syllabification of a smooth sonorant consonant - was probably not achieved, as a result of which the combination of a vowel with a smooth one was restored quite early, as evidenced by the facts:

Palatalization of consonants

Palatalization of consonants before *j

One of the manifestations of the tendency towards syllabic synharmonism was that the consonant group within a syllable strived for articulatory homogeneity, primarily associated with the articulation zone. In this regard, if the consonantal group included [j] (the only palatal consonant of the consonantism system of the Proto-Slavic period), then the entire consonantal group underwent qualitative changes. The process could only have a regressive nature, since in the original phonetic system [j] (]) could only be at the end of a consonantal group. [j] imparted a palatalized character to the preceding consonant (or group of consonants), while itself disappearing, as if dissolved in the articulation of the preceding consonant. all consonants without exception were subjected; the zone of their formation shifted towards the middle palate:

Labial consonants [m], [b], [p], [v] in the position before [j] developed a [l]-shaped overtone, which then turned into a consonant complete education - .

This process was reflected in all Slavic languages, if the group "labial + [j]" was inside the root. At the junction of a root and a suffix or inflection, the process occurred later, and its results were not the same in different Slavic languages: in a number of dialects the combination of labial s also developed here, in other dialects (Bulgarian, Macedonian and West Slavic) [j] softened the preceding consonant and assimilated with him: Wed Russian Earth, Polish ziemia, Czech zeme, Bulgarian earth. The loss of the non-initial l-epenteticum was one of the later changes in the consonantism system of the Old Church Slavonic language, reflected in a number of Old Church Slavonic monuments.

Changing consonant clusters before [j]

If there was a group of velar and dental consonants before [j], it generally tended to palatalize. This manifested itself differently in different groups:

Palatalization of consonants before front vowels

The palatalizing effect of front vowels on consonants was similar to the effect of [j], but was significantly less intense, which is probably due to the peculiarities syllable structure of the Proto-Slavic period, - the establishment within a syllable of a mandatory distribution of sounds in accordance with their acoustic-articulatory characteristics and, as a consequence, the phonemic opposition of vowels and consonants. The general tendency determined by the law of syllabic synharmony, in this case, was realized only in relation to velar consonants, which were most sensitive to palatalization processes. Back palatal consonants in combination with front vowels were universally palatalized. As for all other consonants, even if there was a palatalizing effect of the front vowels, it did not lead to a change in their basic articulation. Most researchers, following N. Van Wijk, believe that in this position there was a partial softening of the consonants, as a result of which they became semi-soft.

posterior palatalization was a process that had been relevant for a long time, due to which it went through several stages.

Groups of consonants before a vowel had a special fate; they also underwent certain changes.

First palatalization of velar consonants

The first palatalization of velar consonants is the process of changing the hard velar consonants [k], [g], into soft sibilant anteropalatal consonants, (via the stage), in a position before the oldest front vowels (before the monophthongization of diphthongs), which was the result of a tendency towards syllabic synharmonism :

The formed sounds, , by their origin, were positional variants of the back-lingual ones (their appearance was completely conditional). But over time, they became independent phonemes. Their acquisition of independent phonemic status was still determined by the peculiarities of the phonetic system of that period:

The transition of positional alternations of velar palatal and sibilants into morphological ones was probably finally completed after the fall of the reduced ones, when sibilants found themselves in a position before the consonant: .

The first palatalization of velar consonants led to the appearance in Slavic languages of alternation of velar and sibilant consonants in cases where the most ancient alternations of vowels were represented at the root, as well as at the end of morphemes during word formation and inflection:

The first palatalization covered all cases of position [k], [g] before vowels of front non-diphthong origin – , , , . After monophthongization of the diphthong, the velar consonants found themselves in a position before the front vowels, but the effect of the first palatalization had already ended by this time, so the velar consonants underwent other changes.

Transition * to ["a] in the process of palatalization of velar consonants

The softening of velar consonants during the first palatalization before * led to the fact that dispalatalization occurred and the vowel changed its quality along i. Thus, instead of , which arose as a result of qualitative differentiation of vowels in place of the original *, in this case we have [a]:

Second palatalization of velar consonants

The second palatalization of velar consonants is the process of changing the hard velar consonants [k], [g], into sibilant consonants [c], [z] (through the stage), [s] before vowels of front diphthong origin. He had a special fate - the result of his change could be:

The effect of the second palatalization of velars was due to the fact that after the monophthongization of the diphthong *, which began with a non-front vowel, the position for velar consonants changed: they again found themselves in front of the front vowels [i], . Since the tendency toward syllabic synharmonism remained relevant, hard velars had to undergo palatalization.

There is no clear solution to the question of the degree of softening of the sounds [c], [z], [s], which appeared as a result of the second palatalization, which distinguishes them from the sounds that appeared during the third palatalization. One might think that in terms of articulation, the results of the second palatalization represented that degree of softening that is commonly called semi-softness: , , , [ . ]

Fate during the second and third palatalizations

The results of the second and third palatalization of the velar palatal for turned out to be different by dialect: in the southern and eastern dialects we find, in the western -:

Third palatalization of velar consonants

The third of velar consonants is the process of changing hard velar consonants [k], [g], into soft (palatalized) sibilant consonants, , under the influence previous front vowels. Just as in the process of the second palatalization, the result of the change could be and. Palatalization of *g went through the stage:

The third palatalization has a special, progressive character. Unlike the first and second palatalizations, here the process is not influenced by the subsequent vowel, but by the previous one. Since the law was in force in this era, in this case we have an intersyllable effect.

according to A. M. Selishchev, some verbal forms experience a greater degree of reduction than the forms of names;
particles undergo significant reduction;
adverbs could be subject to strong reduction depending on the frequency of their use (in this case, not only the end of the word, but the entire adverb as a whole could be reduced);
the same changes could concern account names and names used when addressing someone.

The results of the weakening (reduction) of the end of the word were manifested in the following phonetic phenomena:

Loss of final consonants

The loss of final consonants [t], [d], [s], [r], [n] is a fairly early process of the Proto-Slavic era, caused by the tendency towards ascending sonority. It consisted in the fact that groups of consonants at the end of a word begin to change.

As a result of the loss of consonants at the end of a word, a large number of open syllables.

Hardening of final consonants

In connection with the general tendency to weaken the final syllable, the consonants within it became hardened. This process occurred in Slavic languages at different times. As an example, we can cite the hardening t" at the end of the 3rd unit and plural of the present tense of verbs:

In the specified verb forms phonetic phenomena of the position of the end of a word could lead to the complete loss of the final [t], which also did not occur simultaneously in different Slavic languages. In the Middle Bulgarian era, as evidenced by monuments, forms without [t] were more often used; in modern Bulgarian dialects the forms of the 3rd person singular don't have [t]. Only dialects in western Macedonia still represent the 3rd person singular form with [t].

Qualitative changes in final vowels

In the position of the end of the word, there was an increase in the labialization of the middle vowel [*], which led to the fact that it became a high vowel. The vowel [*] passed into in the following final combinations:

Reduction of final long vowels

Long vowels ending a word were shortened quite early in Slavic languages:

Vowel alternation

In the original Indo-European phonetic system, vowels entered into non-positional qualitative and quantitative alternations (). inherited this system, but as a result of qualitative differentiation of vowels in the Proto-Slavic language, new alternations appear, while the qualitative-quantitative alternations of the original phonetic system change into qualitative ones.

As a result, a new (compared to the Indo-European system) series of alternations was formed, which was the result of a long historical development:

Morphemes with a complete set of all alternating monophthongs are extremely rare. Usually several monophthongs alternate:

Alternating vowels could appear before sonants, and the monophthongization of diphthongs and diphthong combinations produced fundamental changes in the series of alternations if sonorants were placed before consonants.

If sonorants were placed before vowels, a series of alternations could look like this:

However, it is known that in the Proto-Slavic period, the most significant factor that determined profound transformations in the system was the tendency to construct a syllable according to the principle of ascending sonority: before consonants and at the end of a word, combinations of vowels with sonorants changed into monophthongs or changed their structure in another way:

Consonant alternation

If alternations of vowels fundamentally arose in the Indo-European period and, having undergone changes, were reflected in Old Slavic monuments, then alternations of consonants arose in the process of development as a result of the action of the law of syllabic synharmonism:

) within one word by one or more phonetic features, such as row, rise (openness) or roundness. The phenomenon is characteristic mainly of agglutinative languages. Synharmonicity in series and rounding is characteristic of the vocalism of most Turkic languages. In the Western languages of the Finno-Ugric group, the law of vowel harmony operates according to the order of sound formation (front or back). The Tibetan language is characterized by synharmonic ascent. To one degree or another, the phenomenon of synharmonism is present in many languages of the world (Akan, Igbo, Bezhta, Takelma, Sranan-Tongo, Saramaccan, Lingala, Sesotho, Northern Sotho, etc.).

The relationship between synharmonism and umlaut

Synharmonism is primarily understood as the likening of the subsequent vowel to the previous one. (progressive synharmonism). Regressive synharmonism is called umlaut.

The relationship between synharmonism and ablaut

Ablaut differs from synharmonism by the absence or optionality of positional conditionality. At the same time, the simultaneous existence of synharmonism and ablaut is possible.

The withering away of synharmonism

Progressive synharmonism (manifesting partially or completely) has disappeared in Estonian and some other Finno-Ugric and Samoyedic languages, in some Turkic (literary Uzbek, Uyghur, Krymchak, Urum, Balkan dialects of Turkish, Salar, Saryg-Yugur) and Japanese. This process could be accompanied by a loss of phonemic importance of the series category.

Umlaut partially or completely disappeared as a positionally determined change and actually turned into a secondary ablaut, for example, in Germanic (English) goose"goose" - geese), Yakut (presence of doublets like Khatyn//Katun"woman").

synharmonism- a, m. gr. syn together + harmonia consonance. In linguistics, the palatality of vowel sounds in a word is similar to the root vowel, which is characteristic of some languages. BAS 1. Synharmonism is characteristic of Turkic languages. Krysin 1998. Lex. SIS 1937:… … Historical Dictionary Gallicisms of the Russian language

- (from the Greek syn together and harmonia consonance) uniform in the composition of vowels (sometimes consonants) design of a word as a morphological unit. Primarily characteristic of agglutinative (see Agglutination) languages... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

SYNHARMONISM, synharmonism, pl. no, husband (from Greek syn together and harmonia consonance) (Ling.). In some, preferably in Turkic languages, the likening of vowel sounds in a word to the root vowel. Ushakov's explanatory dictionary. D.N. Ushakov. 1935 1940 ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary

Synharmonism- (from the Greek σύν together and ἁρμονία consonance) morphological phenomenon, consisting in a uniform vocal (sometimes consonantal) design of a word as a morphological unit. In languages with synharmonicity, an independent element is distinguished in the structure of the word... Linguistic encyclopedic dictionary

synharmonism- (ancient Greek σύν âtogether + άρμονια connection, consonance) A phenomenon observed mainly in the Turkic languages, Finno-Ugric, consisting in the fact that the vowel of the root of which l. words is determined by the nature of subsequent vowels in the affixes of the same word. For example:… … Dictionary linguistic terms T.V. Foal

- (from the Greek sýn together and harmonía consonance), uniform in the composition of vowels (sometimes consonants) design of a word as a morphological unit. Primarily characteristic of agglutinative (see Agglutination) languages. * * * SYNHARMONISM SYNHARMONISM (from... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

- (from the Greek sýn together and harmonía consonance) a uniform design of the root and affixes, consisting in the alignment of the vowels (sometimes consonants) of a word according to any sign of the sound of the row (timbre S.), roundness (flat S.) or rise... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

M. The palatality of vowel sounds in a word is similar to the root vowel, characteristic of some languages (in linguistics). Ephraim's explanatory dictionary. T. F. Efremova. 2000... Modern Dictionary Russian language Efremova

Tatar alphabet

A a F f N n U y

Ә ә җ ң Ү ү ъ

B b Z z O o F f Y y

B in I and Ө ө X x ь

G g Y j P p I h E e

D d K k R r C c Yu u

E e L l S s H h I

Yo e M m T t Sh w

SOUNDS

1.1. Sounds denoted by additional letters of the Tatar alphabet

[ә] [ө] [ү] [җ] [ң] [һ]

[ә] = [æ] – this sound can otherwise be designated as [’’a], that is, a very soft [a]. It is close to Russian ['a] in the words 'sit', 'look', 'row'. When pronouncing [''a], lower the tip of your tongue to your lower teeth and you will get the sound [æ].

Ani – mother

әti – dad

When pronouncing [ә], the most common error is one that appears due to the influence of graphics: when reading, the letter itself is confused with the Russian “e”. It should be immediately noted that there is no relationship between them. Moreover, the sounds [e] and [ә] often replace themselves in similar positions and influence the meaning of the word. For example: ishetә – ishette; kiterte – kiterte, etc.

[ө] = [ә:°] – this vowel sound presents the greatest difficulty for the Russian-speaking reader. The closest version of the Tatar [ө] can be found in the words “maple”, “honey”, “Peter”. But in the Tatar language [ө] is short, and Russian [’о] is found only under stress. Try to pronounce these Russian words as briefly as possible and with great pronunciation, and you will be close to the desired sound.

[ү] = [ü] – soft and more rounded [’у]. A sound close to it is found in the Russian words “bale”, “ditch”, “lute”.

үрдәк – duck

үrnәk sample

[җ] – this sound also often found in English language, and in borrowings from English in Russian it is expressed by the letter combination j: “jumper”, “Jack”. Tatar borrowings are also formalized: jilyan - җilyan, Jalil - Җәlil. The sound [zh] in Russian is always hard, but forming a soft version from it is usually not difficult for a Russian-speaking reader. It should be noted that hard [zh] is also uncharacteristic for the Tatar language, as [’zh] is for Russian. Therefore, as a rule, mixing of these sounds does not occur.

җavap is the answer

han – soul

[ң] is a nasal sound produced by a small tongue. The sound combination [ng] in the word “gong” when pronounced through the nose can be considered the closest in the Russian language.

yana – new

ң – right

[һ] = [һ] – pharyngeal sound. It is formed in the pharynx and is pronounced with aspiration. In Russian, the closest sound can be considered [x] in the words robe, chill, if pronounced without a guttural sound. It must be remembered that Tatar [һ] is of more posterior, pharyngeal origin.

Khava – air

һәykәl – monument

1.2. Sounds denoted by the same letters of the Tatar and Russian alphabet

The complexities of the sound system of the Tatar language are not limited to specific Tatar letters. In addition, there is a discrepancy in the common letters for the Tatar and Russian alphabets.

[a] [o] [s] [e] [c] [g] [k]

a – in the Tatar language this letter denotes a more posterior, wider and somewhat rounded sound [аү]. When pronouncing it in the word pencil, try to create as much space in your mouth as possible

Tatar word its translation Russian word

rank number

card old man

bar available

chana sani

barn palace

shoe shoe

[o], [s], [e]

o, e, y – these vowel letters of the Tatar alphabet are characterized by brevity compared to Russian ones.

Since in the Russian language there is no meaningful contrast of vowels by length, for a Russian-speaking reader at first this will seem unimportant. But it is not difficult to get used to this phenomenon. It is important to pay attention to this from the very beginning of training, until the use of these sounds becomes the norm.

court national dish

turn the boron

devil cheese

Kyrys is strict

son become

gel always

berenche first

serle secret

в – this letter in the Tatar language serves to designate two sounds: [в] and [w]. The second sound is in the English language, and in borrowings it is conveyed in two ways: William - William. The same is true with regional borrowings from the Tatar language: avyl - aul, karavyl - guard. In the Tatar language itself, this sound can be denoted by the letter y: sorau [soraw] - soravy [sorawy].

it's time

Savyt dishes

bosau calf

avyl village

g - this letter also denotes two sounds. These are quite different sounds. This sound, formed with the help of a small tongue, is familiar to Russian-speaking readers: it is produced when a person burrs and does not pronounce [r].

hag crow

Kagan Kagan

komgan kumgan

gyna only

k – similar to the letter g, denotes two sounds [k] and [қ]. The sound [k] is a voiceless pair [ғ].

hag crow

tank frog

balyk fish

karak thief

PHONETIC REGULARITIES

Now you practically know the pronunciation of all Tatar letters (there are a few more peculiar aspects of the Tatar sound system, but they are not of fundamental importance at the initial stage). You also need to know the fundamental laws of Tatar phonetics. They exist in any language, and you need to constantly remember them during your first lessons. In the Tatar language, the three basic rules of practical phonetics are:

– law of synharmonism;

– the rule of striving for an open syllable;

– clear pronunciation of the last syllable.

Law of synharmonism

Word formation

One of the features of the Tatar language is the simplicity of modifying certain words. This is clearly seen in the formation of plurals:

Әni – Әnilәr; Ana – Analar
(singular) - (plural); (singular) - (plural)
mother - mothers; mom - moms

Remember:

Әni = Ana = Mom
synonyms

As can be seen from the examples, the difference between the two plural forms: ...lar and ...lәр lies in just one letter. And this is connected with the so-called “law of synharmonism,” according to which “hard vowel sounds will be accompanied by hard sounds,” and “soft sounds will be accompanied by soft sounds.”

Synharmonic rule:

“Hard vowel sounds are accompanied by hard sounds;
soft vowel sounds - soft"

It is noteworthy that softness or hardness is reflected in consonant sounds. So, if there is a hard vowel in a particular word, then the consonant sound, as a rule, is pronounced firmly:
bar = [bar] = go.

If the vowel is soft, then the consonant sound will be read softly:
bәr = [byar] = throw, throw.

The “Rule of Synharmonism” makes language learning easier because it corresponds to the human subconscious. And indeed, if a word is pronounced through soft sounds, then I involuntarily want to continue it in the same gentle manner:

әbi - әbilәr
(singular) - (plural)
grandmother - grandmothers
If the word is pronounced firmly, then its continuation is asked firmly:
babay – babaylar
(singular) - (plural)
grandfather - grandfathers

In order to better understand the “rule of synharmonism”, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with the table in which all vowel sounds are distributed into two groups: “hard” and “soft”.

Table of paired vowel sounds according to the principle: “hard” - “soft”

For words whose roots contain both hard and soft vowels (elga, kitap), we focus on the last vowel.

As in many other languages, there are certain kinds of exceptions in the Tatar language. Regarding this rule, the exception concerns those words that were borrowed from the Russian language. For example, if you form the plural from the word museum, then the softness of the word will be determined by the first vowel: museumlar.

I would like to draw Special attention on how words are formed and modified in the Tatar language. If in Russian the change of words, as a rule, occurs by adding prefixes, suffixes and changing endings, then in Tatar this process is mainly carried out by adding suffixes to the root of the word.
Simply put, we are talking about the “train principle”, where:

"Locomotive" is the root of the word,
and the chain of “cars” are suffixes,
and the “gaps” between them are clearly visible.

Such a characteristic was once given to the Tatar language by the famous scientist A. Reformatsky, and it truly reflects reality.
Let's take, for example, a word like suz - “word”. If it is necessary to change the number of this word, then the already mentioned form -lar/-lәр is added to it. In this case: sүзләр – “words”. If you need to indicate belonging to someone, then an “attractive pronoun” is added: сүзләрң – “your words”. If there is a need to mark the location, then another fragment is added - the combined preposition “-da/-dә”, meaning “in”: ззләрңдә – “in your words”. In this case, the formula will look like this: сүзләрңдә = сүз + …ләр + …ең + …дә

As a result of the law of the open syllable all syllables in the Old Russian language were open, that is, they ended in a vowel sound (the law of the open syllable was terminated approximately mid-XII V. due to the fall of the reduced ones). The law of the open syllable determined the fact that in the Old Russian language there could not be consonants at the end of a word, because in this case the syllable would be closed. The same law determined the limitation of consonant combinations in the language: in the Old Russian language there were only groups of consonants strictly limited in their composition, consisting for the most part of two elements, the first of which was noisy, and the second sonorant, although there could also be combinations of two voiceless or two voiced noisy consonants. Combinations of three consonants were less common, and in these combinations the last element was always a sonorant or [v]. These groups included [str], [skr], [smr], [skl], [skv], [stv], [zdr]. If several consonants were combined in the middle of a word, they moved to the next syllable (se/stra).

Separately, it is necessary to say about the phenomena of the beginning of a word. Even in the Proto-Slavic language, when the law of the open syllable began to operate, prostheses appeared before a number of initial vowels. So,

before the sound [e] there appears [j] (cf. the present tense forms of the verb to be - am, esi, is, esm, naturally). As a rule, there are no words of Russian origin that begin with the sound [e]: this pronoun is a new formation, and as for interjections like eh, you need to remember that they can contain in their phonetic shell sounds that are absent in the sound system of the language

(interjections are on the periphery of the language). Words could not begin with [ы] or a reduced sound - already in the Proto-Slavic language, in such cases a prosthetic consonant always appeared: before

before the reduced front row - [j], and before the reduced non-front row and [ы] - [v] (cf. *udra and modern otter; alternation in words teach - science - skill). Before [a], a prosthetic consonant [j] appeared, with the exception of those words that, as a rule, were used after a pause - the conjunction a, interjections ah, ay, the word maybe (in the Old Church Slavonic language we observe the loss of [j] before [a], and

not only the prosthesis is lost, but also the original [j]). Before the sound [k], a prosthetic sound also develops, and here there could be both [j] and [v] (cf. the etymologically related words ties - knit). Sometimes

a prosthetic consonant also appeared before [o], which among the Eastern Slavs became [u] (cf. us - caterpillar). Before [i] there is also a prosthetic consonant [j], but it is not indicated in writing. Basically, words could begin with vowels [o], [u], and in the Old Russian language the number of words with the initial sound [u] increased. It should be noted that when initial sound[o] with special intonation, a prosthetic consonant [v] also appeared (cf. father - patrimony, eight - eight). Already after separation from the Proto-Slavic language in the East Slavic languages, a kind of intersyllabic dissimilation occurs: when in the subsequent syllable there was a front vowel [e] or [i], then it is lost on East Slavic soil

initial [j], and the vowel [e] from the front row moves to the back row, i.e. [e] > [o] (cf. from Common Slavic edin - Old Russian one). This also applied to borrowed names (Evdokia - Ovdotya, Elena - Olena).

The law of the open syllable played huge role in the formation of the phonetic system of Slavic languages.

Law of syllabic synharmony was that only the sounds of one articulation could be combined in a syllable: after a soft consonant there could only be a front vowel, and after a hard consonant - a non-front row, and, conversely, before a front vowel there had to be a soft consonant, and before a non-front vowel row - hard consonant. Thus, the action of the law of syllabic synharmonism causes a change in the back consonants before the front vowels into hissing (according to the first palatalization) and whistling (according to the second and third palatalization) consonants.

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IN THE BASHKIR AND TATAR LANGUAGES"

The Bashkir language, like many Turkic languages, is characterized by the law of synharmonism. Synharmonism is a phonetic phenomenon characterized by the fact that the vowel of the first syllable determines the nature of the vowels of subsequent syllables. In accordance with this law of synharmonism, Bashkir vowels are divided into two groups. Vowels a, o, y, s are back vowels. In the Bashkir language, these vowels are designated by the term “kalyn”, which literally means “thick”. Vowels ө, ә, ү, e(e), and belong to the front vowels (in Bashkir “n әҙek” - thin). Almost all vowels (except And) have synharmonic parallels: A- ә, o-ө, u-ү, ы – e(e). .

In a word, vowel sounds come in only one row: either front or back. The nature of the vowel is fundamentally preserved in subsequent syllables when other affixes are added to the word.

Almost all affixes and particles have two variants: hard and soft. If the root of a word contains only hard vowels, then affixes and particles with a hard vowel are added. If a word contains only soft vowels, then affixes and particles of only the soft vowel are added. For example:

bala – balalar – balalarga

Asәay – Asәayem – Asәayemden

In compound words consisting of two or more roots, the hardness/softness of the affixes depends on the nature of the vowel of the last root.

Aғiҙelden һыуы омшаҡ. – The water of Agidel is soft.

Aғiҙel = Aҡ (white) + iҙel (river)

Bilbauymdy bir ale. - Give me my belt.

Bilbau = bil (waist) + bau (rope)

The Bashkir language also has labial synharmonism. After labial vowels root oh in case affixes (possessive and accusative cases) must follow O or ө :

If behind a labial syllable with oh, ө there are syllables with y, ү, then in such cases harmony ceases:

Some linguists believe that there is no labial harmony in the Tatar language. To find out, I studied the colloquial speech of the Tatars of our city. In the Tatar language, labial synharmonism is preserved only in oral speech. Labial vowels in the first syllable O ,ө vowels located in the second (and partially in the third) syllable are robbed s , e. All these sounds are pronounced briefly:

This type of harmony is not displayed in writing.

In the Bashkir language there is also an adaptation of consonants to a number of vowels. Depending on the combination with back or front vowels, each consonant sound has a hard or soft pronunciation. In words with back vowels (kalyn) consonants are pronounced firmly in words with front vowels (nәҙek) – soft:

ҡul (hand) – kүl (lake)

toҙ (salt) – toҙ (straight)

there (drip) – tәm (taste)

Some words borrowed from the Russian language also obey the law of synharmonism:

The only exceptions to the law of synharmonism are complex words of the Bashkir language itself or borrowed from Arabic, Persian, Russian, Western European and other languages. For example:; Bilbau- belt; G ө lna ҙ - lit. flower+weasel; kitap- book; dictation, academy , maths, physics etc.

Law of synharmonism

Word formation

One of the features of the Tatar language is the simplicity of modifying certain words. This is clearly seen in the formation of plurals:

Әni – Әnilәr; Ana – Analar
(singular) - (plural); (singular) - (plural)
mother - mothers; mom - moms

Әni = Ana = Mom
synonyms

If the vowel is soft, then the consonant sound will be read softly:
bәr = [byar] = throw, throw.

The “Rule of Synharmonism” makes language learning easier because it corresponds to the human subconscious. And indeed, if a word is pronounced using soft sounds, then one involuntarily wants to continue it in the same soft manner:

Әbi = Grandmother
Babai = Grandfather
Әni + Әti + Әbi + Babai + Min = Family, Gailә

Table of paired vowel sounds according to the principle: “hard” - “soft”

For words whose roots contain both hard and soft vowels (elga, kitap), we focus on the last vowel.

Exercise. Form plurals according to the rule you learned:
elga - elgal...; su - su...; ash - ...; өй -…; cache - cache...; kurshe -…

Elga = River
Su = Water
Ash = Food, Food
Keshe = Person
Kurshe = Neighbor

I would like to pay special attention to how words are formed and modified in the Tatar language. If in Russian the change of words, as a rule, occurs by adding prefixes, suffixes and changing endings, then in Tatar this process is mainly carried out by adding suffixes to the root of the word.
Simply put, we are talking about the “train principle”, where:

A little about the verb

When learning most languages, special attention should be paid to verbs, because, as already mentioned, they are the “ basic structure» almost all languages of the world.
Verbs, as a rule, begin to be studied with their “ indeterminate form"(in linguistics referred to as the "infinitive"). However, in this case, we propose to start studying verbs with a form that is usually called the “action name” or, in other words, the “verbal name”.
This choice is far from accidental - this form of the verb is extremely close to the root of the word. In the Tatar language, the imperative form of a verb is also its root. Consequently, knowing it and having studied the rules by which this or that form of the verb is formed, it will be possible to learn how to operate with them without much difficulty.
The form of the “name of action” looks quite simple in the Tatar language - the ending “-у” or “-ү” is added to the root of the word (the imperative form of the verb) (depending, as you probably already guessed, on the law of “synharmonism”).

www.tatartel.com

Russian Arborist

§1. Original sound system

Russian language belongs to the group of Slavic languages, which together form one of the branches of Indo-European language family. The Indo-European proto-language was divided into branches (Proto-Germanic, Proto-Roman, Proto-Slavic, Proto-Baltic, etc.) at the turn of the 3rd-2nd millennium BC. e. This division consisted in the fact that the Indo-European heritage began to develop in each family according to special laws inherent only to it.

The Proto-Slavic language, starting from the 10th century, began to be divided into three groups - eastern, southern and western, each of which was divided into separate Slavic languages: East Slavic, or Old Russian, which broke up in the XIV-XV centuries into Little Russian, Belarusian and Great Russian; South Slavic (Serbian, Slovenian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Macedonian) and Western Slavic (Polish, Czech, Slovak, Kashubian, Upper and Lower Sorbian, Polabian); each of which is divided into dialects that could potentially become separate languages, however, this is unlikely to happen due to the fact that literary languages displace dialects and lead to their extinction

Thus, the history of the sounds of the Russian language must begin with the Indo-European heritage. The Proto-Slavic dialect inherited the following phoneme system from the Indo-European proto-language

1.1. Vowel phonemes:

1. 2. Diphthongs and diphthong combinations:

*ei, *oi, *ai, *eu, *ou, *au; *en, *em, *on, *om, *an, *am, *in, *im, *er, *el, *or, *ol, *ar, *al.

1.3. Consonant phonemes:

a) eight sonorant phonemes: four non-syllabic and four syllabic:

b) sixteen stops:

H >, h >, h >, h >, w >, h >, w >, wh >.

c) one fricative phoneme - spirant (from Latin s piro ‘I blow’).

1.4. Syllable structure: syllables could be either open or closed, that is, ending in both syllabic and non-syllabic sounds. Most vowels were only syllabic, and most consonants were only non-syllabic. However, sonorant consonants, due to their high sonority, depending on their position in the word, could be either syllabic or non-syllabic; the highest vowels (*i, *u) could also be either syllabic or non-syllabic, depending on position; in diphthongs the second sound was always non-syllabic.

1.5. Alternation of sounds.

In the Indo-European proto-language there were four stages of alternation:

a) main stage: ĕ / ŏ – tĕ t / t ŏ t;

b) main extended stage: ē / ō / ǝ (seam primum) – t ē t / t ō t / tǝ t;

c) reduction stage: ĭ / ŭ – t ĭ t / t ŭ t;

d) zero stage: ø – tøt.

(Note: Schwa indogermnicum primum represented the degree of reduction of the long vowels ā, ē, ō in the pre-stressed syllable; for example: I.-e. * st ā ti / * st ə j ŏ n> prosl. * stati / * stoj ǫ.(See: Bernstein 1, 147).

The alternations at the main stage in Proto-Slavic were transformed as follows: I.-E. ĕ / ŏ > prosl. e / o (n e sti – n O sit).

The alternations at the stage of extension in Proto-Slavic were transformed as follows: I.-e. ē / ō / ǝ > prosl. ě / a / ŏ.

Sometimes, under the influence of neighboring sounds, alternation ō / ǝ could look like: a / y or a / u. See for example: kv A With / sour prasl. b / ъ.

The extension of alternations at the stage of reduction in Indo-European led to the emergence of long vowel alternations: ĭ / ŭ > ī / ū . In Proto-Slavic this alternation was transformed as follows: ī / ū > i / y .

“As a result, the following series of alternations [ĕ : ŏ: ь: ъ: ě : ā : ī : ȳ] was formed in Proto-Slavic” (Bernstein 2, 35).

With the loss of longitude and brevity, this series will take the following form:

e / o / b / b / a / i / s.

Within one morpheme, the entire series of alternations practically does not occur; only individual links of this series are used for word-formation purposes. Here is a relatively complete set of alternations within one root:

The alternation of vowels within the root (the so-called internal inflection, German Ablaut) in I.-E. language had a distinctive meaning, traces of which have survived to the present day. So, e-vocalization characterizes verb stems, O-vocalization - nominal bases: order – will, weave (ъ / s fundamentally * tŭ k — / t ū k- expresses the meaning of one-time - multiple actions: poke - poke > poke - poke.

Vowels ĕ / ŏ on the main stage with sonants i And u formed diphthongs: ĕ i And ŏ u; the same vowels at the stage of reduction before the sonants i And u moved to the zero level, and the sonants became short vowels: ĭ i > øĭ, ŏ u > øŭ . This is how the series of alternations arose: 1) ĕ i / ŏ i / ĭ , 2) ĕ u / ŏ u / ŭ. In the Proto-Slavic language these series were transformed as follows: 1) ei / oi / b, 2) e u / ou / ъ. With the onset of the law of ascending sonority, diphthongs underwent monophthongization (see §14).

As part of diphthong combinations, these vowels alternated as follows:

In the Proto-Slavic language this system of alternations collapsed, leaving more or less noticeable traces, which will be visible in the formation of individual words; at the same time, the destruction of this system led to the obfuscation and further severing of family ties between words, to the de-etymologization of individual words.

The phonetic system inherited from the Indo-European proto-language has undergone significant transformations. Chronologically, these transformations can be divided into two groups: transformations of the early Proto-Slavic language and transformations of the late Proto-Slavic language. All types of transformations are marked with a § sign with a number: §1…§ n; these same symbols are used in dictionary entries to refer to the corresponding section of the introductory article.

First, let's look at the transformations of sounds in the early Proto-Slavic period.

§2. Dephonologization of the quantitative feature of vowels

In the Indo-European proto-language, the quantitative feature of vowels was semantically distinctive, or phonological. In the early Proto-Slavic language the sign of longitude - brevity ceases to be phonologically significant. In this case, phonemes that differed quantitatively begin to differ qualitatively, and some phonemes that differed qualitatively, on the contrary, coincide (the letters with which a given sound is designated in the Cyrillic alphabet are indicated in brackets):

*ă and *ŏ > o (o); compare: Russian axis- lat. ăxis, but Russian house- lat. dŏmus;

*ā and *ō > a (a); compare: Russian mother- lat. mater, but Russian gift- lat. dōnŏ‘I give’;

*ĕ > e (e); compare: Russian sky- lat. nĕbula'fog';

*ē > ě (e); compare: st. Sam, Dr.Rus. seed, Russian seed- lat. sēmĕn;

*ĭ > ь (ь); compare: st. bribe, other Russian bribe, Russian bribe- Gothic mĭzdo'pay';

*ī > i (and, i); compare: Russian three- lat. triginta ‘30’;

*ŭ > ъ (ъ); compare: st. Makh, other Russian. mx, Russian moss- lat. mŭscŭs'moss';

*ū > ы(ы); compare: Russian smoke- lat. fumus‘smoke’, Russian. son- lit. sunus.

In some other Indo-European languages, the transformation of quantitative vowel differences into qualitative ones also occurred, but the results of this transformation were significantly different from the results in the Proto-Slavic language. For example, in Common Germanic *ā and *ō coincided in, and *ă and *ŏ coincided in, that is, the process was opposite to the Proto-Slavic.

Loss of longitude-brevity as a distinctive feature and qualitative changes vowels led to the transformation of ancient alternations:

*ē / *ō > e/a: st-sl. sedati – garden.

§3. Conversion of non-syllabic consonants

*i̥ > j (in Cyrillic it was denoted by the sign ¶ in combination with other letters as part of the so-called ligatures: у = ju , ÿ = ja, ¬ = je, ª = ję, « = jo; sometimes it was not indicated in any way, for example: and = jь); in other i.e. in non-syllabic languages *i̥ also changed into j, only in some cases in ancient Greek. passed into the affricate ζ; compare: v.-sl. yoke (v (v) in all I.-E. languages.

§4. Centum-satem phenomena

The Indo-European proto-language was characterized by the presence of soft back-lingual stop phonemes and. In a large group I.-e. languages, these phonemes were preserved in their quality, and in another group I.-e. languages there was a transformation of the stops of the back linguals into fricative consonants. Languages in which velar stops are preserved are called in Latin centum: These are the Italic, Celtic, Germanic branches, as well as the Greek language. The same ones in which * k changed into fricative consonants, called the Avestan word satə m: these are Indian, Iranian, Baltic, Slavic branches, Armenian and Albanian languages.

Compare: lat. centum‘one hundred’ - st.-sl. soto, Greek δέκα ‘ten’ - v.-sl. ten, lat. pictura‘drawing’ - v.-sl. write; Greek γιγνώσκω - Old-Sl. nobility, lat. granum‘grain’ - v.-sl. no good.

§5. Transition *s > *ch

Phoneme * s in position after phonemes *r, *u, *k, *i, and also after diphthongs *oi, *ai, *ou, *au and not before plosive consonants it turned into a phoneme * сh. Compare: st. makh, Russian. moss- lat. mŭscŭs'moss'; st. σho - lit. ausis.

§6. Vocalization of syllabic sonorants

In the Indo-European proto-language, sonorant sounds, due to their high sonority, acted as syllable-forming sounds. In the majority Indo-European languages sonorants lost their syllabification, but the results of this loss varied in different languages.

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2.3.3. Analysis of disyllabic words of the Azerbaijani language from the point of view of the law of synharmonism

Speaking about the phonetic structure of a word in the Azerbaijani language, one cannot help but touch upon the important and widespread law of synharmonism in the Azerbaijani language.

Synharmonism is one of the most important phonetic phenomena that plays a large role in the organization of words. Synharmonism is characteristic of agglutinative languages, such as Turkic languages, including the Azerbaijani language.

The essence of synharmonism lies in the fact that each word form of a language of this type contains segmental elements (vocal and consonantal) of one specific series, which are opposed in the language system of another series. For example, the two series are front and back vowels. In this case, the word may contain vowels of the same class (59, 41).

The correlation of vowels according to a certain characteristic, in this case according to a series, is phonologically significant; it is no coincidence that synharmonism is often called “vowel harmony.” However, as a result of accommodation processes in the sound stream, the implementation of synharmonicity is such that the quality of the vowels also determines the quality of the consonants in the word. Many Russian linguists spoke in defense of a broad understanding of synharmonism, emphasizing the Russian origin of the term “synharmonism” itself, for example, A.A. Reformatsky (85, 191-193). So, for example, a “back row” word will contain consonants of a deeper formation, and a “front row” word will contain their semi-soft allophones. This applies to all consonants of the language, although these two classes of allophones are most clearly perceived in the velar and uvular consonants and in the lateral consonant [l], which is noted by a number of linguists. Thus, synharmonism is enough complex phenomenon, which determines the entire phonetic appearance of the language - its vocalism, consonantism and features of the syllabic structure, as well as “a phenomenon that covers units of other tiers of linguistic structure (morpheme, lexeme), and, moreover, a very important phenomenon for the structural and typological understanding of agglutinating languages” (85 , 192).

The above gives the most general idea about one of the types of synharmonicism - “palatal”, “labial” synharmonicism is also known (contrasting the vowels of the labialized and non-labialized series and, accordingly, rounded and unrounded allophones of consonants, often combined with the palatal, for example, in Azerbaijani. In the word of the synharmonic Azerbaijani language, synharmonic is organized primarily a root that determines the vowelization of affixes, which in this language are represented in at least two morphonematic variants corresponding to the opposed classes of phonemes. The choice of variant is determined by the vowelization of the root. At the same time, the phonological essence of the vowels of the initial root syllable and non-initial affixal syllables, with their phonetic similarity from the standpoint of different phonological directions are determined differently.

The law of synharmonism refers to the unity of the sound composition of a word from a physiological-acoustic point of view (115.210). There are two types of synharmonism in the Azerbaijani language: 1 ) vowel harmony and 2) harmony of vowels and consonants. Vowel harmony is based on two principles: 1) from the point of view of place of education And 2) from the point of view of the participation of the lips. The harmony of vowels at the place of formation occurs on the basis of their hardness-softness and manifests itself in two forms: 1) harmony of hard (non-front) vowels And 2) harmony of soft (front) vowels. Both the harmony of hard vowels and the harmony of soft vowels, depending on the participation of the lips, appears in two forms: 1.1) harmony of unrubbed solids vowels, 2) harmony of unrounded soft vowels And 2.1) harmony of rounded hard vowels, 2) harmony of rounded vowels soft vowels.

A special place in the Azerbaijani language is occupied by palatal synharmonism, the essence of which is that the word, as noted above, in all its forms should consist either only of soft sounds (front vowels and soft consonants) or only of hard sounds(non-front vowels and hard consonants). “From a purely phonetic point of view, synharmonism consists in the fact that each word ... can contain either only front vowels and palatalized consonants, or only back vowels and velarized consonants,” wrote N.S. Trubetskoy on this occasion (102, 312).

In the flow of speech, the layering of phases of two sounds on top of each other is a universal anthropophonic phenomenon characteristic of all languages. It occurs according to the phonetic law formulated by N.V. Krushevsky as follows: “When pronouncing a group of two sounds, a tendency is noticed in the work of the organs to bring closer (if possible) the places of origin of both sounds” (52, 32-33). But in each language this law operates in its own way: if in the Russian language the sign of hardness-softness characterizes consonants as a differential one, then in the Azerbaijani language this sign is distinctive for vowels. This leads to the fact that in the Russian language, consonants according to this characteristic influence vowels, but in the Azerbaijani language, on the contrary, vowels influence consonants, i.e. if in the Russian language, non-front vowels under the influence of soft consonants become front, and front vowels under the influence hard consonants - non-front, then in the Azerbaijani language consonants under the influence of hard (i.e. non-front) vowels are pronounced firmly, and under the influence of soft (i.e. front) vowels - “softened”. Thus, as a result of the harmony of vowels and consonants in the Azerbaijani language, in the flow of speech, either only a hard series or only a soft series of sounds is used as part of a word. Therefore, in connection with the difference in the interactions of vowels and consonants according to the named attribute in two languages of different systems, which are Russian and Azerbaijani, depending on the hardness-softness of consonants and the row of vowels in the Russian language, only a syllable of the type GHS has 8 options: GHS, SG’ WITH, WITH’ HS, WITH’ G’ WITH, GHS’, SG’ WITH’, WITH’ GS’, WITH’ G’ WITH', while in the Azerbaijani language, depending on the row of vowels, there are only 2 options: GHS And WITH’ G’ WITH' (4, 45).

Analysis of 10,044 disyllabic words of the Azerbaijani language from the point of view of their observance of the law of synharmonicity allowed us to come to the following conclusions.

Two-syllable words in which the law of synharmonicity is observed both signs of vowels.

I.1.Harmony of unrounded hard vowels:

1) A – A = 1060 words: maraq, cavan, qazan;

2) A – I = 722 words: canlı, mahnı, satış;

3) I – A = 157 words: sısqa, qıyqac, pırtlaq;

4) I – I = 236 words: qırış, sıyıq, pıç-pıç.

I.2.Harmony of rounded hard vowels.

1) O – O = 120 words: folklor, sonor, kos-kos;

2) O – U = 300 words: donmuş, forslu, corpus;

3) U – U = 268 words: buynuz, quyruq, duruş;

4) U – O = 37 words: tumov, buxov, kurort.

II.1.Harmony of unrounded soft vowels:

1) Ə – Ə = 711 words: sərçə, kəvər, xəstə;

2) Ə – İ = 699 words: qəlib, səsli, təhsil;

3) Ə – E = 13 words: xətkeş, təsbeh, qəzet;

4) E – E = 101 words: dekret, beret, brezent;

5) E – Ə = 113 words: meşə, qeyrət, yemək.

6) E – İ = 279 words: steril, yetim, telli;

7) İ – İ = 493 words: içki, dişi, fikir;

8) İ – Ə = 305 words: dilçək, xislət, nimçə;

9) İ – E = 80 words: disket, printer, sweater.

II.2.Harmony of rounded soft vowels.

1) Ö – Ü = 106 words: görüş, könül, bölgü;

2) Ö – Ö = 13 words: kösöv, dördgöz, gömgöy:

3) Ü – Ü = 236 söz: zümrüd, tülkü, küçük;

4) Ü – Ö = 6 words: üz-göz, müsyö, bütöb.

Violation of vowel harmony in disyllabic words of the Azerbaijani language revealed several cases:

I. Violation of vowel harmony only on the basis of rounded-unrounded while maintaining harmony on the basis of hardness and softness: :

I.1. A series of unrounded and rounded hard vowels:

1) A – U = 124 words: casus, yakut, kayut;

2) A – O = 162 words: sambo, mason, çayxor.

3) I – U = 1 word: qır-qur;

4) I – O = 2 words: qırdon, cırtqoz.

I.2. A row of rounded and unblown solid vowels:

1) O – A = 490 words: doxsan, boya, yortqan;

2) O – I = 2 words: bozqır, qol-qıç;

3) U – A = 282 words: tundra, sual, duman;

4) U – I = 2 words: rumın, taqım.

II.1. A series of unrounded and rounded soft vowels:

1) Ə – Ü = 16 words: ət-süd, şəngül, kərkük;

2) Ə – Ö = 6 words: əks-qöbs, bədöv, təkgöz;

3) E – Ü = 10 words: revyü, etüd, velür, şey-şüy;

4) E – Ö = 3 words: yer-göy, gendöş, beşgöz;

5) İ – Ü= 9 words: bircür, şil-küt, qipür;

6) İ – Ö=5 words: bizövq, likör, cingöz.

II.2. A series of rounded and unrounded soft vowels:

1) Ö – Ə = 259 words: böcək, növbə, hörmət;

2) Ö – E = 4 words: mövqe, ögey, dörd-beş, zövceyn;

3) Ö – İ = 8 words: dövri, lösit, qövsi;

4) Ü – Ə = 227 words: ürək, qüllə, bükmək;

5) Ü – E = 18 words: süjet, püre, rüşeym, flüqel, güney;

6) Ü – İ = 45 words: mürid, cüzi, ülvi, qütbi, gülçin.

II. Violation of vowel harmony only on the basis of hardness-softness while maintaining harmony on the basis of rounded-unrounded:

I. A series of unrounded hard and soft vowels:

1) A – İ = 302 words: katib, sahil, xain, maki;

2) A – Ə = 85 words: namə, qarət, yafəz;

3) A – E = 134 words: kansler, qaz-neft, maket;

4) I – E = 2 words: vımpel, şeblet;

5) I – Ə = 1 word: xişkəs.

6) I – İ = no examples.

2. A series of unrounded soft and hard vowels:

1) Ə – A = 327 words: həyat, bərpa, kənar;

2) Ə – I = no examples.

3) E – A = 275 words: mehman, reklam, şeytan, freqat, metal;

4) E – I = no examples.

5) İ – A = 360 words: bina, nigah, misra, ziyan, gilas;

6) İ – I = 2 words: dikbığ, ilıq.

3. A series of rounded hard and soft vowels:

1) O – Ü = 4 words: zor-güc, noktürn, xoşüz, xoşgün;

2) O – Ö = 5 words: od-köz, soy-kök, boz-göy, kor-göz, şorgöz;

3) U – Ü = 1 word: buntürk;

4) U – Ö = no examples.

4. Row oruinedX softX and hard vowels:

1) Ö – U = 7 words: mövzu, mövcud, mövhum, mövlud, mövzun;

2) Ö – O = 2 words: göyot, dördyol;

3) Ü – O = 4 words: flüor, dzü-do, güc-xoş, güc-zor;

4) Ü – U = 72 words: süqut, vücud, hüquq, nüfuz, şüur.

In a number of words, violation of the law of vowel harmony occurs according to both vowel characteristics:

I. Unrounded hard – rounded soft vowels:

1) A – Ö = 10 words: markör, yan-yön, amyöb, acgöz, baş-qöz;

2) A – Ü = 19 words: pratürk, mal-mülk, yağ-süd, labüd, jalüz;

3) I – Ö = no examples.

4) I – Ü = no examples.

2. Unrounded soft vowels – rounded hard vowels:

1) Ə – U = 114 words: cəsur, məlum, əruz, məktub, səlcuq;

2) Ə – O = 13 words: bərk-boş, əl-qol, sərxoş, həndbol, dəmrov;

3) E – U = 29 words: berkut, zeytun, şeypur, retuş, ekskurs;

4) E – O = 12 words: depo, veto, beton, despot;

5) İ – U = 35 words: simurq, tribun, iyul, virus, disput;

6) İ – O = 128 words: milord, milyon, bizon, sinod.

3. Rounded hard – unrounded soft vowels:

1) O – Ə = 12 words: xoşsəs, xoşbəxt, dolbənd;

2) O – E = 96 words: foye, broker, obyekt, order, phonem;

3) O – İ = 116 words: bromid, tropik, forint, plotin, polis;

4) U – Ə = 12 words: ruhən, surət, busə, kuzə;

5) U – E = 48 words: bunker, dublet, zummer, rulet, dudkeş;

6) U – İ = 80 words: munis, kulis, budin, qusli, util.

4. Rounded soft – unrounded hard vowels:

1) Ö – A = 20 words: sövda, böhtan, göz-qaş, növraq, röya;

2) Ö – I = no examples.

3) Ü – A = 89 words: kübar, güzar, zülal, büsat, dükan;

4) Ü – I = no examples.

As can be seen, compliance with the law of synharmonism on both grounds occurs in 21 possible cases and in 5955 disyllabic words, or in 59.3% of all disyllabic words of the Azerbaijani language.

Violation of vowel harmony has the following options:

1) words with violation of labial harmony while maintaining palatal harmony: 20 possible cases and occurrence in 1675 words, which is 16.65% of all disyllabic words.

2) words with violation of palatal harmony while maintaining labial harmony : 16 cases out of 20 possible and occurrence in 1583 words, which is 15.75% of all disyllabic words. No examples on I – İ, Ə – I, E – I, U – Ö.

3) words with violation of both palatal and labial harmony: 16 cases out of 20 possible and occurrence in 833 words, which is 8.3% of all disyllabic words. No examples for: I – Ö, I – Ü, Ö –I, Ü – I.

In the overwhelming majority of disyllabic words of the Azerbaijani language, the law of palatal synharmonism is observed: 7630 out of 10044 disyllabic words, or almost 76%, are constructed in compliance with this law, which corresponds to the data obtained by other specialists: for example, according to the calculations of R.S. Mamedov, only 18593 words out of 59744 words available in " Spelling dictionary Azerbaijani language" (Baku, 1975), i.e. only a third lexical composition Azerbaijani language represents a deviation from this law (63.105). It should be especially noted that in many cases, vowel harmony is violated according to one criterion, and violations according to two characteristics amount to a little more than 8%. Words with violations of the law of synharmonism in the vast majority of cases are borrowings or complex formations.

CONCLUSIONS

1. The Azerbaijani language is characterized by the law of synharmonism, which includes two types of harmony: palatal and labial harmony.

2. Both types of harmony are both phonetic law permeates the sound structure of the Azerbaijani word, determines the choice of vowels of non-first syllables depending on the vowel of the first syllable of the word:

3. In the Azerbaijani language, the law of synharmonism is generally observed: out of 10,044 disyllabic words in SL, 7,060 or 76% are constructed in accordance with this law.

4. In many cases, vowel harmony in SL is violated according to one criterion, and violations according to two characteristics amount to a little more than 8%.

5. Words with violations of synharmonicity in SL are overwhelmingly borrowings or complex formations.