PSA: aeiouǝ Inventories Exist in Natlangs!

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smappy
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PSA: aeiouǝ Inventories Exist in Natlangs!

Post by smappy »

I didn't know where else to post this, but I've seen the question floating around of whether plain /aeiouǝ/ vowel inventories exist in natlangs, often with some mention of Cherokee /aa:ee:ii:oo:uu:ǝ̃ǝ̃:/ and Albanian /aɛiɔuyǝ/.

Well, just going on Phoible, I found there are several languages with /aeiouǝ/. Most are from Indonesia for some reason, continuing the theme of Austronesian languages being almost conlang-y phonologically (mnŋptkʔbdgfshwlrj, CV(C), no tone, hurrah).

I knew about Malay's /aeiouǝ/ already from a phonetics/phonology class assignment where we had to record some other language's vowel system and I recorded my Malay friend. But nitpicky Phoible claims it's more like /aeiɔuǝ/.

But then it turns out that Malay's relative Iban from Borneo does actually have /aeiouǝ/. Yay!

Concerned about nasalization and/or length? Tabasco Chontal (Mexico) apparently has /aeiouǝã:ẽ:ĩ:õ:ũ:ǝ̃:/. Want both mid vowels lowered a bit because you're unsatisfied with Malay's system? Try Central Marghi's (Nigeria) /aɛiɔuǝ/. Want just three vowels nasalized? Try Nama (Namibia) with /aeiouǝãĩũ/ and you can even boast that your language was phonologically inspired by Khoisan.

Finally, here's evidence that /aeiouǝ/ is not a fluke. Copies of Iban's vowel system are found in Kala Lagaw Ya (Australia) and East Makian (Indonesia) and Dera (Indonesia) and Kuot (Papua New Guinea) and Soqotri (Yemen), all of which are non-Austronesian and belong to different families from one another, so far as we know.

Yay! Finally we can design six-vowel systems with impunity!

Disclaimer: I treat e̞ as e and o̞ as o when they are not contrastive— if this offends you, note that Kuot at least apparently has true /aeiouǝ/ and that a surprising amount of field data is riddled with minor transcription inaccuracies anyway, especially in publications that were written before the days of Praat.

edit: typos
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Re: PSA: aeiouǝ Inventories Exist in Natlangs!

Post by sangi39 »

IIRC, Eastern Armenian has /a e i o u ǝ/ as well, but it's been a while since I looked at Armenian.
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Re: PSA: aeiouǝ Inventories Exist in Natlangs!

Post by atman »

YRC. The Eastern Armenian mid vowels are usually realized [ɛ ɔ], and the /a/ is a little backed [ɑ].
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Re: PSA: aeiouǝ Inventories Exist in Natlangs!

Post by Davush »

Some dialects of Arabic may be analysed as /a ə a: e: i: o: u:/ with /ə/ being realised as [ɪ~ə~ʊ] depending on surrounding consonants.
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Re: PSA: aeiouǝ Inventories Exist in Natlangs!

Post by k1234567890y »

Smappy, it seems that you really have a spirit of science and tries to get empirical evidence for everything, that's good :)

Smappy, are you a professional linguist or a graduate student whose major is linguist?
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Re: PSA: aeiouǝ Inventories Exist in Natlangs!

Post by Creyeditor »

I thought it was one of the standard vowel systems [O.o]
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Re: PSA: aeiouǝ Inventories Exist in Natlangs!

Post by MrKrov »

Hence the general lack of commentary, I suppose.
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Re: PSA: aeiouǝ Inventories Exist in Natlangs!

Post by Serena »

Some dialects of Italian, as well.
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Re: PSA: aeiouǝ Inventories Exist in Natlangs!

Post by kanejam »

Tocharian B and apparently A both have /aeiouǝ/. While they do both have phonetic [ɨ], in the case of Tocharian B it is simply an allophone of unstressed /ǝ/, whereas in Tocharian A, Proto-Toch. /ɨ/ is elided in open syllables and inserted into consonant clusters, and supposedly exists solely as a totally predictable epenthetic vowel.
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Re: PSA: aeiouǝ Inventories Exist in Natlangs!

Post by GrandPiano »

What does "PSA" stand for?
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Re: PSA: aeiouǝ Inventories Exist in Natlangs!

Post by Egerius »

GrandPiano wrote:What does "PSA" stand for?
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Re: PSA: aeiouǝ Inventories Exist in Natlangs!

Post by GrandPiano »

Ah, thanks.
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Re: PSA: aeiouǝ Inventories Exist in Natlangs!

Post by Curlyjimsam »

It had never occurred to me that this might not occur ...
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Re: PSA: aeiouǝ Inventories Exist in Natlangs!

Post by Ahzoh »

atman wrote:YRC. The Eastern Armenian mid vowels are usually realized [ɛ ɔ], and the /a/ is a little backed [ɑ].
My pronunciation of Vrkhazhian's vowels is this.
Its vowel system is essentially entirely Eastern Armenian.
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Re: PSA: aeiouǝ Inventories Exist in Natlangs!

Post by cntrational »

Curlyjimsam wrote:It had never occurred to me that this might not occur ...
Cardinal [a] and [ə] are similar sounds -- it's linguistically odd to make a relatively subtle distinction there and not anywhere else.

Speakers will prefer to shift either [ə] or [a] to something like [ɨ] or [æ] to make the sounds distinct -- this wouldn't happen if the vowel space was already filled enough to make this shift a bad idea.
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