Permic languages

From MedBib.com - Medicine & Nature

Permic
Geographic
distribution:		 Ural Mountains in the Russian federation
Genetic
classification:		 Uralic
 Finno-Ugric
  Finno-Permic
   Permic
Subdivisions:
ISO 639-2 and 639-5: fiu

Permic languages are a subgroup of the Finno-Ugric language family. They are spoken in the Ural Mountains of Russia.

Phonology

The Proto-Permic consonant inventory is reconstructed as:[1]

Labial Alveolar Post-
alveolar		 Palatal Velar
Plain Palatalized
Plosives and
affricates		 Voiceless p t tʲ tʃ tɕ k
Voiced b d dʲ dʒ dʑ ɡ
Fricatives Voiceless s sʲ ʃ
Voiced v z zʲ ʒ
Nasals m n nʲ ŋ
Approximants w l lʲ j
Trill r

This inventory is retained nearly unchanged in the modern-day Permic languages. Komi has undergone a change *l → /v/, /w/ in many dialects, while Udmurt has changed word-initially *r → /dʒ/. *ŋ is retained only in some Udmurt dialects; elsewhere it has become /m/ next to back vowels, /nʲ/ near front vowels.

In later Russian loanwords, the consonants /f x ts/ can occur.

Literary Komi and literary Udmurt both possess a seven-vowel system /i ɨ u e ə o a/. 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 /i ɨ u/ in both languages, the other in correspondences of Udmurt /e ɨ u/ to Komi /e ə o (but long /iː ʉː uː/ in the Komi-Yodzyak language). Proposed distinguishing factors for these include length (*u, *uː), tenseness (*ʊ, *u) and height (*u, *o).[2]

Notes

  1. ^ Bartens 2000, p. 33
  2. ^ Bartens 2000, p. 55-56

Bibliography

Bartens, Raija (2000) (in Finnish). Permiläisten kielten rakenne ja kehitys. Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura. ISBN 952-5150-55-0. 

v • d • e
Uralic languages
Finno-Volgaic
Akkala · Inari · Kemi · Kildin · Lule · Northern · Pite · Skolt · Southern · Ter · Ume
Other
Permic
Komi (Zyrian  · Permyak  · Yodzyak)  · Udmurt
Ugric
Samoyedic
Italics indicate extinct languages
Stub icon This language-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
All material adapted used from Wikipedia is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
Seeking health information online: does Wikipedia matter?