Mongolian Vowel Harmony in a Eurasian Context

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-77
Author(s):  
Ian G. Barrere ◽  
Juha A. Janhunen

Abstract The paper discusses the controversy that has arisen concerning the origin and nature of vowel harmony in Mongolian, as well as in a number of other Eurasian languages. In contrast to the conventional understanding according to which Proto-Mongolic had a palatal-velar harmony of the same type as is attested in the Turkic and Uralic languages, it has been claimed recently that the harmony was actually of the tongue root type, involving, in particular, tongue root retraction in the pronunciation of certain vowels. However, while tongue root harmony is indeed prevalent in many modern Mongolic languages, including standard Mongolian, there are several arguments that can be made in support of the conventional reconstruction. There are serious reasons to assume that Mongolic has undergone a process of vowel rotation, which has turned the originally palatal-velar harmony to tongue root harmony. In this process the originally horizontally organized harmonic pairs have become verticalized. A typical result of the verticalization has been the rapid reduction of the original vowel paradigm as well as the development of new palatal vowels to complement the losses.

1983 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-33
Author(s):  
John Victor Singler

Klao, a Kru language spoken in Liberia, has a nine-vowel system. Like most other Kru languages, it displays harmony sensitive to pharyngeal constriction (tongue-root retraction). What gives the Klao vowel-harmony system special interest is the fact that a great deal of variation occurs, suggesting that vowel harmony is in some way optional. This provides a counter-example to the claim (made in Clements [1977l) that root-controlled vowel harmony is always obligatory. Given this optionality, the question arises as to which model best captures the facts of Klao vowel harmony. 'l,w frameworks are considered: one, along the lines of Anderson [1930], treats vowel harmony as one more assimilation rule, and the other, following the model found in Clements [1981] handles vowel harmony autosegmentally.


1985 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 253-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Goldsmith

The discussion of vowel harmony in this paper continues the theoretical discussion that was sparked by Clements' first proposals concerning an autosegmental treatment of vowel harmony in general (1980 [1976]). I will attempt to show that problems that arose in early autosegmental treatments of certain types of vowel harmony can be elegantly overcome and that autosegmental theory more generally provides an attractive framework for the treatment of vowel systems and vowel harmony. I will discuss three distinct types of systems here: the slightly asymmetrical system of Khalkha Mongolian, the canonical five-vowel system as it can be seen in Bantu (Yaka, in this case), and the well-known Finnish/Hungarian type of system. The kinds of advances made here answer, I believe, the critical comments made in Anderson (1980), in which significant sceptical questions are raised concerning whether the successes of autosegmental accounts of West African systems can be extended to other types of vowel harmony systems.


1956 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 578-591 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naralie Waterson

The relations within the suffixed forms of the Turkish word havt hitherto been treated as a series of unconnected statements as a result of the phonological and grammatical levels of analysis being made in phonemic terms. ‘Vowel Harmony’, which implies a separating out of the vowels from the rest of the word structure, ‘Consonant Alternance’, and ‘variant’ forms with the implication of consonants ‘changing’ from one form to another, all these are statements not related to the structure of the word, and bring in their train some irregularities in the grammatical statement where none need arise.


1966 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 118-119
Author(s):  
Th. Schmidt-Kaler

I should like to give you a very condensed progress report on some spectrophotometric measurements of objective-prism spectra made in collaboration with H. Leicher at Bonn. The procedure used is almost completely automatic. The measurements are made with the help of a semi-automatic fully digitized registering microphotometer constructed by Hög-Hamburg. The reductions are carried out with the aid of a number of interconnected programmes written for the computer IBM 7090, beginning with the output of the photometer in the form of punched cards and ending with the printing-out of the final two-dimensional classifications.


Author(s):  
J. Temple Black ◽  
William G. Boldosser

Ultramicrotomy produces plastic deformation in the surfaces of microtomed TEM specimens which can not generally be observed unless special preparations are made. In this study, a typical biological composite of tissue (infundibular thoracic attachment) infiltrated in the normal manner with an embedding epoxy resin (Epon 812 in a 60/40 mixture) was microtomed with glass and diamond knives, both with 45 degree body angle. Sectioning was done in Portor Blum Mt-2 and Mt-1 microtomes. Sections were collected on formvar coated grids so that both the top side and the bottom side of the sections could be examined. Sections were then placed in a vacuum evaporator and self-shadowed with carbon. Some were chromium shadowed at a 30 degree angle. The sections were then examined in a Phillips 300 TEM at 60kv.Carbon coating (C) or carbon coating with chrom shadowing (C-Ch) makes in effect, single stage replicas of the surfaces of the sections and thus allows the damage in the surfaces to be observable in the TEM. Figure 1 (see key to figures) shows the bottom side of a diamond knife section, carbon self-shadowed and chrom shadowed perpendicular to the cutting direction. Very fine knife marks and surface damage can be observed.


Author(s):  
M. Ashraf ◽  
F. Thompson ◽  
S. Miki ◽  
P. Srivastava

Iron is believed to play an important role in the pathogenesis of ischemic injury. However, the sources of intracellular iron in myocytes are not yet defined. In this study we have attempted to localize iron at various cellular sites of the cardiac tissue with the ferrocyanide technique.Rat hearts were excised under ether anesthesia. They were fixed with coronary perfusion with 3% buffered glutaraldehyde made in 0.1 M cacodylate buffer pH 7.3. Sections, 60 μm in thickness, were cut on a vibratome and were incubated in the medium containing 500 mg of potassium ferrocyanide in 49.5 ml H2O and 0.5 ml concentrated HC1 for 30 minutes at room temperature. Following rinses in the buffer, tissues were dehydrated in ethanol and embedded in Spurr medium.The examination of thin sections revealed intense staining or reaction product in peroxisomes (Fig. 1).


Author(s):  
William P. Wergin ◽  
P. F. Bell ◽  
Rufus L. Chaney

In dicotyledons, Fe3+ must be reduced to Fe2+ before uptake and transport of this essential macronutrient can occur. Ambler et al demonstrated that reduction along the root could be observed by the formation of a stain, Prussian blue (PB), Fe4 [Fe(CN)6]3 n H2O (where n = 14-16). This stain, which is an insoluble precipitate, forms at the reduction site when the nutrient solution contains Fe3+ and ferricyanide. In 1972, Chaney et al proposed a model which suggested that the Fe3+ reduction site occurred outside the cell membrane; however, no physical evidence to support the model was presented at that time. A more recent study using the PB stain indicates that rapid reduction of Fe3+ occurs in a region of the root containing young root hairs. Furthermore the most pronounced activity occurs in plants that are deficient in Fe. To more precisely localize the site of Fe3+ reduction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), x-ray analysis, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were utilized to examine the distribution of the PB precipitate that was induced to form in roots.


Author(s):  
J.M. Titchmarsh

The advances in recent years in the microanalytical capabilities of conventional TEM's fitted with probe forming lenses allow much more detailed investigations to be made of the microstructures of complex alloys, such as ferritic steels, than have been possible previously. In particular, the identification of individual precipitate particles with dimensions of a few tens of nanometers in alloys containing high densities of several chemically and crystallographically different precipitate types is feasible. The aim of the investigation described in this paper was to establish a method which allowed individual particle identification to be made in a few seconds so that large numbers of particles could be examined in a few hours.A Philips EM400 microscope, fitted with the scanning transmission (STEM) objective lens pole-pieces and an EDAX energy dispersive X-ray analyser, was used at 120 kV with a thermal W hairpin filament. The precipitates examined were extracted using a standard C replica technique from specimens of a 2¼Cr-lMo ferritic steel in a quenched and tempered condition.


Author(s):  
T. R. Dinger

Zirconia (ZrO2) is often added to ceramic compacts to increase their toughness. The mechanisms by which this toughness increase occurs are generally accepted to be those of transformation toughening and microcracking. The mechanism of transformation toughening is based on the presence of metastable tetragonal ZrO2 which transforms to the monoclinic allotrope when stressed by a propagating crack. The decrease in volume which accompanies this transformation effectively relieves the applied stress at the crack tip and toughens the material; microcrack toughening arises from the deflection of a propagating crack around sharply angular inclusions.These mechanisms, however, do not explain the toughness increases associated with the class of composites investigated here. Analytical electron microscopy (AEM) has been used to determine whether solid solution effects could be the cause of this increased toughness. Specimens of a mullite (3Al2O3·2SiO2) + 15 vol. % ZrO2 were prepared by the usual technique of mechanical thinning followed by ion beam milling. All observations were made in a Philips EM400 TEM/STEM microscope fitted with EDXS and EELS spectrometers.


Author(s):  
F. Monchoux ◽  
A. Rocher ◽  
J.L. Martin

Interphase sliding is an important phenomenon of high temperature plasticity. In order to study the microstructural changes associated with it, as well as its influence on the strain rate dependence on stress and temperature, plane boundaries were obtained by welding together two polycrystals of Cu-Zn alloys having the face centered cubic and body centered cubic structures respectively following the procedure described in (1). These specimens were then deformed in shear along the interface on a creep machine (2) at the same temperature as that of the diffusion treatment so as to avoid any precipitation. The present paper reports observations by conventional and high voltage electron microscopy of the microstructure of both phases, in the vicinity of the phase boundary, after different creep tests corresponding to various deformation conditions.Foils were cut by spark machining out of the bulk samples, 0.2 mm thick. They were then electropolished down to 0.1 mm, after which a hole with thin edges was made in an area including the boundary


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