Goal ` To show the Mongolic (Great) Vowel Shifts (Svantesson 1985) is untenable ` To propose a new analysis for the historical development The Mongolic Vowel Shift revisited of the Mongolic vowel systems Seongyeon Ko (Cornell University) 2 Mongolic vowel shift 7/26/201 1 Gist Old Mongolian ` Mongolic (Great) Vowel Shifts (MVS hereafter) ` Old Mongolian (Svantesson et al. 2005: 98) (Svantesson 1985) ` The immediate ancestor language that can be reconstructed from documents written in four different scripts: Uigurs, ` Old Mongolian: a palatal system (front-back contrast) &KLQHVH$UDELFDQG·Phags-pa in the 13th to 14th centuries ` Mod. Khalkha: an RTR system (tongue root contrast) ` Cf. Middle Mongol (Rybatzki 2003), Middle Mongolian (Poppe ` Æ Thus, a palatal-to-RTR shift 1955) ` Proto-Mongolic (Janhunen 2003:1) ` My claim ` The technical term for the common ancestor of all the living and historically attested Mongolic languages ` Old Mongolian: an RTR system ` Classical Mongolian (Written/Literary Mongol(ian)) ` No such a great vowel shift ` The written language which has been used since about the 13th ` Cf. Mod. Kalmyk/Oirat palatal system century and is still used by the Mongols of Inner Mongolia, China (Poppe 1954, 1955; Svantesson 1985; Janhunen 2003) 3 The Mongolic vowel shift revisited 7/26/201 4 Mongolic vowel shift 7/26/201 1 1 Outline Pre-modern Mongolic vowel system ` Proto-Mongolic ` 6YDQWHVVRQ·V Mongolic vowel shifts ` Janhunen (2003:4) ` Proposal: an RTR analysis of OM ` Evidence ` The development of the Mongolic vowel systems ` Old Mongolian ` Conclusion ` Svantesson et al. (2005:111) 5 Mongolic vowel shift 7/26/201 6 The Mongolic vowel shift revisited 7/26/201 1 1 Modern Mongolic vowel systems MVS (1): Kalmyk/Oirat type Khalkha Monguor ` Kalmyk and Oirat Dagur Kalmyk = OM palatal system 7 The Mongolic vowel shift revisited 7/26/201 8 Mongolic vowel shift 7/26/201 1 1 MVS (2): Monguor MVS (3): Mongolian type ` Monguor, Santa, Bonan, Moghol ` Mongolian, Buriat, Khamnigan, Shira Yugur, Kangjia 9 Mongolic vowel shift 7/26/201 10 Mongolic vowel shift 7/26/201 1 1 MVS (4): Dagur type Problems of the MVS ` Based on an assumption yet to be proven ` ´,Wis generally assumed that OM (and Proto-Mongolic) had palatal (back~front) vowel harmony, and we will also make this assumption. There is, however, only incomplete support for this in the sourcesµ Svantesson et al. 2005:113) ` No internal motivation ` ´Velarization and pharyngealization are not conditioned by the phonological environment, and have no obvious internal PRWLYDWLRQµ Svantesson et al. 2005:178) 11 Mongolic vowel shift 7/26/201 12 Mongolic vowel shift 7/26/201 1 1 Velarization An RTR analysis of OM (proposal) ` Front Vs are assumed to move backward. ` Æ A violation of /DERY·V Principle III of vowel shifting ` vs. 0\¶575·DQDO\VLV 7UDGLWLRQDO¶SDODWDO·DQDO\VLV ` Three principles of vowel shifting (Labov 1994:116) In chain shifts, PRINCIPLE I long vowels rise. PRINCIPLE II short vowels fall. PRINCIPLE IIA the nuclei of upgliding diphthongs fall. PRINCIPLE III back vowels move to the front. ` Velarization alone cannot explain the velar-uvular distinction in, e.g., Monguor and Santa 13 Mongolic vowel shift 7/26/201 14 Mongolic vowel shift 7/26/201 1 1 Evidence in favor of the RTR analysis of OM Majority wins ` ` Comparative methods (Campbell 2004:131ff) Reconstruction of OM vowels ` Majority wins ` Economy ` Naturalness(directionality) ` Textual evidence ` Mongolian-Chinese correspondence (Hattori 1975) ` Mongolian-Korean correspondence (K-M Lee 1964) 15 The Mongolic vowel shift revisited 7/26/201 16 The Mongolic vowel shift revisited 7/26/201 1 1 Kalmyk/Oirat Economy (1) Kalmyk/Oirat Economy (2) A palatal analysis An RTR analysis Monguor Monguor Old Old Mongolian Mongolian Khalkha Khalkha Dagur Dagur 17 The Mongolic vowel shift revisited 7/26/201 18 The Mongolic vowel shift revisited 7/26/201 1 1 Naturalness: Vaux (2009) Naturalness: Vaux (2009) ` Palatal-to-TR shift (6YDQWHVVRQ·V proposal) ` 9DX[·Vclaim: ` No known phonetic principles ` Proto-Altaic originally had a TR system. ` No known attested cases ` TR-to-palatal shift (a reverse shift) ` Phonetically grounded: ` TB movement is concomitant with TR movement (Lindau 1975; Archangeli & Pulleyblank 1994) ` Attested in e.g., Somali, Louisiana English ` Explains the Southwest Turkic voicing ` Simplification ` Enhancement of the perceptability (F2 difference) ` Maximal distribution of the back vowels ` This seems to be true at the Mongolic level too! 19 The Mongolic vowel shift revisited 7/26/201 20 The Mongolic vowel shift revisited 7/26/201 1 1 MM-Chinese correspondence Mongolian loanwords in Middle Korean ` Hattori (1975) ` ´,WLVPRUHOLNHO\WKDW0LGGOH0RQJROLDQKDGDYRZHOKDUPRQ\ RI¶RSHQ-QDUURZ·W\SH 75W\SH µ ` In the transcription of the Secret History of the Mongols into Chinese characters ` Examples (K-M Lee 1964; 1972[2011]) ` MM ü ² Chinese u Mong Kor Gloss (3DN,63r GDUNEURZQ·¶ غᢕü/ (or /kü/) 緒[ku2] 鉝[ku2] 緢[ku1,2] 緱[ku2,3] ü~ฆ küreng NXU̸/ ` 1 2 ` /kü/ 締[kᦣu ] 纾[kᦣuᢺ ] ö~ง kögsin NZ̸NFLQ ¶veillard, vieux· Hun. I, 15 v) ` Rationale: u~ก ED࣢XGDO paotal ¶FDPS· Hun. II, 8 r) ` The transcription was made based on Northern dialect, maybe Beijing (EHOO\-band, JLUWK·(Pak. I, 30r¶ غdialect (by assumption). o~ก olong RUD ` 14th c. Pekingese had the distinction between [u][uᢺ] and [y][yᢺ]. 21 Mongolic vowel shift 7/26/201 22 Mongolic vowel shift 7/26/201 1 1 MK: an RTR system Vowel correspondence ` J Kim (1993), JK Kim (2000), Ko (2010) 23 The Mongolic vowel shift revisited 7/26/201 24 The Mongolic vowel shift revisited 7/26/201 1 1 Vowel correspondence (cont.) Development of the Mongolic vowel systems 25 The Mongolic vowel shift revisited 7/26/201 26 The Mongolic vowel shift revisited 7/26/201 1 1 Khalkha type Monguor type ` No shift ` RTR neutralization OM Khalkha OM Monguor 27 The Mongolic vowel shift revisited 7/26/201 28 The Mongolic vowel shift revisited 7/26/201 1 1 Dagur type Kalmyk/Oirat type ` Height neutralization ` RTR-to-palatal shift (an innovation) OM Kalmyk OM Buriat/Khamnigan Dagur ` A reinterpretation of the harmonic feature: ` Phonetically grounded: ΀ɲRTR] Æ [ɲdorsal] (Vaux 2009) ` Possibly due to Turkic influence (cf. Kögjiltü 1982) ` Cf. Kazakh: reported as an RTR system (Vajda 1994) 29 The Mongolic vowel shift revisited 7/26/201 30 The Mongolic vowel shift revisited 7/26/201 1 1 Development of Mongolic vowel systems (Ko 2011) Conclusion ` The Mongolic Vowel Shifts (Svantesson 1985) is not well- supported. ` Evidence shows that the original Mongolic vowel system is based on RTR contrast. ` This RTR analysis of OM gives better explanation for the development of the modern Mongolic vowel systems. 31 The Mongolic vowel shift revisited 7/26/201 32 The Mongolic vowel shift revisited 7/26/201 1 1 Appendix Selected references CH approach: Khalkha (an example) Archangeli, Diana and Douglas Pulleyblank. (1994). Grounded Phonology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Campbell, Lyle. (2004). Historical Linguistics: an Introduction. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. ` [cor] > [low] > [lab] > [RTR] Dresher, B. Elan. (2009). The Contrastive Hierarchy in Phonology. Cambridge University Press. Hattori, ShiroƸ. (1975). Boin chowa to chuki Chosengo no boin taikei [Vowel harmony and the Middle Korean vowel system]. Gengo no Kagaku 6, 1-22. Kim, Juwon. (1993). Moumcohwauy Yenku [A Study on Vowel Harmony in Korean: from a Historical Point of View]. Kyeungsan, Korea: Yeungnam University Press. Ko, Seongyeon. (2010). Cwungseykwuke moumcheykyeyui taylip wikyeywa ku pyenhwa [Contrastive hierarchy and its change in the Middle Korean vowel system]. Eoneohak [Linguistics] 56, 87-118. Linguistic Society of Korea. Ko, Seongyeon. (2011). Vowel Contrast and Vowel Harmony Shift in the Mongolic Languages. Language Research 47(1). Lee, Ki-Moon. (1964). Mongolian loan-words in Middle Korean. In Omeljan Pritsak, ed., Ural-Altaische Jahrbücher 35, 188-197. Lee, Ki-Moon. (1972). Kwukesa Kaysel [An Introduction to the History of the Korean Language]. Seoul: Mincwungsekwan. Svantesson, Jan-Olof. (1985). Vowel harmony shift in Mongolian. Lingua 67, 283-327. Svantesson, J.-O., A. Tsendina, A. Karlsson, and V. Franzén. (2005). The Phonology of Mongolian. Oxford University Press. Vajda, Edward. (1994). Kazakh Phonology. Opuscula Altaica: Essays Presented in Honor of Henry Schwarz, 603-650. /i/ = [+cor] /u/ = [-cor, -low, -RTR] /ᖲ/ = [-cor, -low, +RTR] Vaux, Bert. (2009). [atr] and [back] harmony in the Altaic languages. In S. Tatevosov, ed., Investigations into /e/ = [-cor, +low, -lab, -RTR] /a/ = [-cor, +low, -lab, +RTR] Formal Altaic Linguistics: Proceedings of WAFL3, 50-67. Moscow: MAKS Press. /o/ = [-cor, +low, +lab, -RTR] /ᖜ/ = [-cor, +low, +lab, +RTR] 33 The Mongolic vowel shift revisited 7/26/201 34 The Mongolic vowel shift revisited 7/26/201 1 1 CH approach (cont.) CH approach (cont.) Mongolic vowel systems Turkic vowel systems Language Contrastive hierarchy Language Contrastive hierarchy a. Mongolian Proper (e.g., Khalkha, Chakhar) cor>low>lab>RTR a. Turkish, Uyghur (Vaux 2000) low>lab>cor b. Monguor, Santa, Bonan, Moghol cor>low>lab(>RTR) b. Kazakh (Vajda 1994) low>lab>RTR c. Dagur, Buriat, Khamnigan cor>lab>RTR(>low) d. Kalmyk, Oirat cor>low>lab>dor Korean vowel systems Tungusic vowel systems Language Contrastive hierarchy Language Contrastive hierarchy a. Middle Korean cor>low>lab>RTR a. Oroqen, Ewen low>cor>lab>RTR b. Early Modern Korean; NW Korean cor>low>high(>lab) b. Oroch, Written Manchu low>cor>RTR>lab c. Modern SE Korean cor>low>lab c. Spoken Manchu, Sibe low>cor>lab d. Jeju Korean cor>high>lab>low d. Nanai low>cor>RTR 35 The Mongolic vowel shift revisited 7/26/201 36 The Mongolic vowel shift revisited 7/26/201 1 1.