Permic languages

Permic
Ethnicity:	Permians
Geographic distribution:	foothills of the Ural Mountains in Russia
Linguistic classification:	Uralic Permic
Subdivisions:	Komi Udmurt

Permic languages are a branch of the Uralic language family. They are spoken in the foothills of the Ural Mountains of Russia.

• Komi
  • Komi-Permyak
  • Komi-Yodzyak (Yodzyak, Komi-Jazva)
  • Komi-Zyryan (Komi, Komi-Zyrian, Zyrian)
• Udmurt (Votyak)

Phonology

The Proto-Permic consonant inventory is reconstructed as:

		Labial	Alveolar		Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar
			Plain	Pal.
Plosives and affricates	Voiceless	p	t	tʲ	t͡ʃ	t͡ɕ	k
	Voiced	b	d	dʲ	d͡ʒ	d͡ʑ	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 merged original *w into /v/ and undergone a change *l → /v/ or /w/ in many dialects, while Udmurt has changed word-initially *r → /d͡ʒ/. *ŋ is retained only in some Udmurt dialects; elsewhere it has become /m/ next to back vowels, /n/ next to central vowels, /nʲ/ next to front vowels.

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

The consonant *w was marginal and occurred only word-initially or after a word-initial *k, generally traceable to diphthongization of the close back vowel of the 2nd series. An exceptional word is the numeral "six", *kwatʲ, which in Komi is the only native word root with an initial cluster.

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 literary Udmurt and literary Komi-Zyrian, 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).

Morphophonology

Noun roots in the Permic languages are predominantly monosyllabic and invariable with the canonical shape (C)VC. CV roots, such as Udmurt ву /vu/, Komi ва /va/ "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)VCɨ.

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	сьин /sʲin/ "eye"
-pt-	-p
-kt-	-k	кык /kɨk/ "2"
-sk-	-s	мус /mus/ "liver"
-ʃk-	-ʃ	мыш /mɨʃ/ "back"

Udmurt has similar alternation for a number of other clusters of the shape voiced consonant+/m/, while Komi-Zyrian adds a number of clusters of the shape voiced consonant+/j/.

The verb root for "to come": Udmurt лыкты- /lɨktɨ-/, Komi локты- /loktɨ-/ also shows alternation to plain /k/ in e.g. the imperative (in Udmurt only dialectally).

Bibliography

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

Links

• S. K. Belykh. Swadesh list for Permic languages