Permic languages
Template:Short description Template:More citations needed Script error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherTemplate:Main other The Permic or Permian languages are a branch of the Uralic language family. They are spoken in several regions to the west of the Ural Mountains within the Russian Federation. The total number of speakers is around 950,000, of which around 550,000 speak the most widely spoken language, Udmurt. Like other Uralic languages, the Permic languages are primarily agglutinative and have a rich system of grammatical cases. Unlike many other agglutinative languages, they do not have vowel harmony.[1]
The earliest Permic language to be preserved in writing was Old Permic or Old Zyryan, in the 14th century.[1]
Classification
The extant Permic languages are:
The Permic languages have traditionally been classified as Finno-Permic languages, along with the Finnic, Saami, Mordvin, and Mari languages. The Finno-Permic and Ugric languages together made up the Finno-Ugric family. However, this taxonomy has more recently been called into question, and the relationship of the Permic languages to other Uralic languages remains uncertain.[2]
History
The word Permian can be traced back philologically to the Russian word Perem (Перемь) or Perm (Пермь) which is found in medieval Russian chronicles.Template:Sfn The word was initially used to designate certain territories, including the lower reaches of the Dvina River, as well as the area bounded by the Pechora, Vychegda and Kama rivers in the north, west and south, and the Urals in the east, which was incorporated into the Russian state in the late 15th century.Template:Sfn The word Permian was then used to designate the non-Russian peoples who lived in there, which mostly included the Zyrians, and the Russians later began using the appellation Zyrian.Template:Sfn From the 19th century, the word Permian was used in scholarly writing to designate the Zyrians and the Udmurts.Template:Sfn
Phonology
Proto-Uralic word roots have been subject to particularly heavy reduction in the Permic languages.
- Original geminates *pp, *tt, *kk were reduced to single voiceless stops *p, *t, *k.
- Between vowels, original single *p, *t, *k as well as *w and *x were lost entirely.
- Second-syllable vowels were lost entirely. This was obscured in Udmurt by adding -ы to certain words. (PU *lumi "snow" → Udm лымы Script error: No such module "IPA". vs PU *lämi "broth" → Udm лым Script error: No such module "IPA".).
- The sibilants *s, *ś, *š have remained distinct from each other in all positions, but were voiced to *z, *ž, *ź Script error: No such module "IPA". between voiced sounds.
- Consonant clusters were largely simplified: in particular nasal + stop/affricate clusters yield voiced stops/affricates, and stop + sibilant clusters yield voiceless sibilants.
A peculiarity of Permic is the occurrence of the voiced consonants such as *b, *g word-initially even in inherited vocabulary, apparently a development from original PU voiceless consonants.
The Proto-Permic consonant inventory is reconstructed as:Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
This inventory is retained nearly unchanged in the modern-day Permic languages.
Komi has merged original Script error: No such module "IPA". into Script error: No such module "IPA". and undergone a word-final a change Script error: No such module "IPA". → Script error: No such module "IPA". in many dialects, while Udmurt has changed word-initially Script error: No such module "IPA". → Script error: No such module "IPA". or Script error: No such module "IPA".. Script error: No such module "IPA". is retained only in some Udmurt dialects; in other Permic varieties it has become Script error: No such module "IPA". next to back vowels, Script error: No such module "IPA". next to central vowels, Script error: No such module "IPA". next to front vowels.
In later Russian loanwords, the consonants Script error: No such module "IPA". may occur.
The consonant Script error: No such module "IPA". was marginal and occurred only word-initially or after a word-initial Script error: No such module "IPA"., generally traceable to diphthongization of the close back vowel of the 2nd series.Template:Clarify An exceptionalTemplate:Clarify word is the numeral "six", Script error: No such module "IPA"., which in Komi is the only native word root with an initial cluster.[3]
Literary Komi and literary Udmurt both possess a seven-vowel system Script error: No such module "IPA".. These are however not related straightforwardly, and numerous additional vowels are required for Proto-Permic, perhaps as many as 15 altogether. The reconstruction of Proto-Permic vocalism and its development from Proto-Uralic has always been a puzzling topic, for which there are several models. There is general agreement on the existence of two series of close vowels, one of which results in modern Script error: No such module "IPA". in literary Udmurt and literary Komi-Zyryan, the other in correspondences of Udmurt Script error: No such module "IPA". to Komi Script error: No such module "IPA". (but Script error: No such module "IPA". in the Komi-Yazva language). Proposed distinguishing factors for these include length (Script error: No such module "IPA".), tenseness (Script error: No such module "IPA".) and height (Script error: No such module "IPA".).[4]
Here is the vowel table used in Wiktionary:
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | unrounded | rounded | unrounded | rounded | |
| Close | i | ü | u̇ | u | ||
| Close-Mid | e | ö | ȯ | o | ||
| Mid | ||||||
| Open-Mid | ɛ | ɔ̈ | ɔ̇ | ɔ | ||
| Open | ä | a | å | |||
| Vowel correspondences in Permic languages (word-initial syllable) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proto-Permic | Old Komi | Komi-Zyrian | Komi-Permyak | Komi-Yazva | Udmurt | Finnic | notes |
| *a | 𐍐 | а | а | a | а | *a, *ä | |
| *å | 𐍐 | а | а | a | у | *a | |
| *ä | 𐍩 | ӧ | ӧ | ӧ | е | *ä, *e, *i | Dialectally, Udmurt *ä > ӧ |
| *ɔ | 𐍩 | о | о | о | у | *ä, *e, *i, *ö, *ü | |
| *o | 𐍞 | о | о | у | у | *a, *ë, *i, *o, *u | Udmurt *wo- > ва-
Beserman *wo- > ўа- Irregularly, Udmurt *o > ы/и Irregularly, Beserman *o > ө |
| *ɛ | 𐍔 | е | е | е | о | *ä, *e, *i (*ö, *ü) | Next to palatals, Udmurt *ɛ > е
Irregularly, Udmurt *ɛ > e |
| *e | 𐍱 | е | е | и | о | *ä, *e, *i (*ö, *ü) | Next to palatals, Udmurt *e > е
Irregularly, Udmurt *e > e |
| *ɔ̇ | 𐍩 | ӧ | ӧ | ӧ | о | *ä mainly | Before *l, Udmurt *ɔ̇ > а
Irregularly, Udmurt *ɔ̇ > а |
| *ȯ | 𐍩 | ӧ | ӧ | ӱ | ӧ | *o, *u mainly | Udmurt unstressed *ȯ > ы
Beserman unstressed *ȯ > ө |
| *ɔ̈ | 𐍩 | ӧ | ӧ | ӧ | ӧ | *ö, *ü | Udmurt unstressed *ɔ̈ > у
Irregularly, Komi *ɔ̈ > е |
| *ö | 𐍞 | о | о | у | у | *ä, e, i, ö, ü | Beserman *ö > ө |
| *u̇ | 𐍨 | ы | ы | ө | ы | *u, *ü mainly | Beserman *u̇ > ө |
| *i | 𐍙 | и | и | и | и | *i, *e mainly | |
| *u | 𐍣 | у | у | у | у | *a, *o mainly | Irregularly, Udmurt *u > ы/и
Irregularly, Beserman *u > ө |
| *ü | 𐍣 | у | у | у | у | *ä, *e *i, *ö, *ü | Beserman *ü > ө
Irregularly, Udmurt *u > ы/и |
| Vowel correspondences in Permic languages (non-initial syllable) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proto-Permic | Old Komi | Komi-Zyrian | Komi-Permyak | Komi-Yazva | Udmurt | notes |
| *a | 𐍐 | а | а | a | а / о | |
| *ä | 𐍩 | ӧ | ӧ | ө | е | |
| *i | 𐍙 / 𐍨 | и / ы | и / ы | и / ө | и / ы / у | different realisations in
dialectal Udmurt |
Morphophonology
Noun roots in the Permic languages are predominantly monosyllabic and invariable with the canonical shape (C)VC. CV roots, such as Udmurt ву /ʋu/, Komi and Permyak ва /ʋa/ 'water', and (C)VCC roots, such as Udmurt урт /urt/, Komi орт /ort/ 'soul', exist as well. In Udmurt, there are furthermore a number of bisyllabic roots, mostly of the shape (C)VCɯ.[5]
In noun roots with certain final clusters, the second consonant surfaces only when followed with a vowel in inflected or derived forms :
| Full cluster | Shortens to | Example |
|---|---|---|
| -nm- | -n | син Script error: No such module "IPA". 'eye' |
| -pt- | -p | шеп Script error: No such module "IPA". 'ear of corn' |
| -kt- | -k | кык Script error: No such module "IPA". '2' |
| -sk- | -s | мус Script error: No such module "IPA". 'liver' |
| -ʃk- | -ʃ | мыш Script error: No such module "IPA". 'back' |
| -ɕk- | -ɕ | юсь Script error: No such module "IPA". 'swan' |
Udmurt has similar alternation for a number of other clusters of the shape voiced consonant+/m/, while Komi-Zyryan adds a number of clusters of the shape voiced consonant+/j/.[6]
The verb root for 'to come': Udmurt лыкты- Script error: No such module "IPA"., Komi локты- Script error: No such module "IPA". also shows alternation to plain /k/ in e.g. the imperative (in Udmurt only dialectally).[7]
References
Bibliography
- Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
Further reading
- Ante, Aikio. "Studies in Uralic Etymology V: Permic Etymologies". In: Linguistica Uralica LVII, nr. 3 (2021): 161–179. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.3176/lu.2021.3.01
- Fedjunjova, Galina. "Etnitsheskije kontakty i divergentsija permskich jazykov" [Ethnic Contacts and the Divergence of the Permic Languages]. In: Linguistica Uralica 50, nr. 2 (2014). pp. 109–121. DOI: 10.3176/lu.2014.2.03
External links
- S. K. Belykh. Swadesh list for Permic languages
- Permic languages
Script error: No such module "Navbox".