Studies in Uralic vocalism I: A more economical solution for the reconstruction of the Proto-Permic vowel system

Mikhail Zhivlov (Russian State University for the Humanities, zhivlov@gmail.com)

Journal of Language Relationship, № 4, 2010 - p.167-176

Abstract: The article discusses certain issues with the system of Proto-Permic vowels, reconstructed by V. I. Lytkin in his seminal monograph “Historical Vocalism of the Permic Languages”. Several rules of complementary distribution between vocalic correspondences are established, allowing us to postulate a more compact vowel system for Proto-Permic.

Keywords: vocalic systems, linguistic reconstruction, comparative phonology, Proto-Permic vocalism, Permic languages, Komi language, Udmurt language

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