言語研究 (Gengo Kenkyu) 77, 46 58 Some Patterns of Vowel Changes With Reference to Estonian•\ •\ Tamotsu Koizumi Introduction The Estonian language, which is spoken in Estonian Socialist Republic with the population of 1,400,000 (of whom about eighy percent are of Estonian nationality) on the coast of the Baltic Sea, belongs to Baltic-Finnic, the western branch of Finno-Ugric, as a sister language of Finnish. Estonian forms the southern group of Baltic-Finnic with Livonian which is spoken in a corner of Latvia and Votic which is almost extinct as neighbor to the east of the Estonian. On the other hand Finnish comes under the northern group with the language of Karelia immediately adjoining Finland on the east and Vepsian, a relative of Finnish spoken by Lake Onega. That is, Baltic-Finnic is divided into the following." Northern group : Finnish, Karelian, Vepsian Southern group : Estonian, Votic, Livonian Estonian is composed of two major dialects, such as North and 1) The southern group displays the following characteristics : (1) the appearance of the central vowel /e/, (2) more frequent loss of the consonant /h/ and /n/ than in the northern group, (3) the morpheme of conditional mood -ksi- as opposed to -isi- of the northern group, and (4) the demonstrative pronoun (Estonian tema) was substituted for the personal pronoun (Finnish kan) used in the northern group to stand for the third person. OCUOBU oHHo-yzopckozo ReblKOEHaHUR : npuoanmuucko-uHCKue, caa MCKU U u MOpooBCKue REbKU. MOCKBa, 1975. p.11 Ingrian is regarded as a member of the northern group by Estonian scholars, but is incorporated in Karelian by Finnish linguists. 46 Some Patterns of Vowel Changes 47 South dialect. the Estonian written language is based on the North dialect which occupies almost all central parts of Estonia. 2) One of the characteristics of the Estonian written language is a marked difference between the first and non-first vowel system. Thereby no vowel harmony is found in this language. (a) First vowels Non first vowels eooo aaa Of these vowels the symbol(o) means the central mid vowel corresponding to /e/. Th investigation into these vowel systems•ke•l suggests some general tendency of vowel changes. In the pursuit of the process by which first vowels have been reduced to non-first ones, I will exert myself to take out some universal patterns of vowel changes. First Vowels in Batlic-Finnic Recent Uralic studies have made a remarkable progress in proto- Finno-Ugric vowel quality, and E. Itkonen proposed the following reconstructed Proto-Finno-Ugric vowels, which can be identified with the Proto-Baltic-Finnic vowels, for he placed the greatest reliance on 2) The South Estonian dialect includes three subdialects : Voru, Tartu and Mulgi dialect. On the other hand, the North Estonian dialect consists of five subdialects : Insular, West, Central, East and Coastal dialect, of which the standard Estonian language depends chiefly on the Central dialect. In the following arguments, South Estonian refers to Voru dialect, and the written language is cited as North Estonian. Laanest, A. Sissejuhatus latinemeresoame keeltesse. Tallinn, 1975. pp. 30-34 A.Kask has recognized the division of three main dialects, and treats Coastal dialect as an independent dialect, which is called the Norh- East dialect. OCHOBU UHHO-yzopocozo REblKEHaHUR. pp.188-196 48 Tamotsu KOIZUMI the Baltic-Finnic languages in his analysis of Finno-Ugric vowels.3) Froto-Finno-Ugric vowels = Proto-Baltic Finnic vowels (b) First vowels Non-first vowels Short vowels Long vowels i u u i u e o e b e a a a a Taking first vowels into consideration, we can assume that the front mid rounded vowel /o/ appeared in an earlier period of Proto- Baltic-Finnic. Finnish Karelian Vepsian Estonian Votic kazii lealktada 'to cough' kOhii tgazii 'cough' miirista mOrtitii moraita moriseda marisd 'to groul' The above examples may be classified as onomatopoetic or des- criptive words. L. Hakulinen states that /e/ /6/ in initial nowels took place under the influence of the rounded /y/ of the second syl- lable in the development of Finnish, for example holtya < heltya 'to loosen' and that on the analogy of this change halii 'loose' may be derived from hella.4) If the derivation of vowels is shown by an arrow like e o, the first vowels of Baltic-Finnic must have developed into the fol- lowing pattern. Hereafter in the northern group this vowel system has been preserved, while in the southern group the central /e/ was sepa- 3) Itkonen, E. Zur Frage nach der Entwicklung des Vokalismus der ersten Silbe in den finnisch-ugrischen Sprachen, insbesondere im Mordwinischen. Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen (=FUF) 29. Helsinki, 1947. pp.222-337 Itkonen, E. Zur Geschichte des Vokalismus der ersten Silbe im Tscheremissischen and in den permischen Sprachen. FUF 31. pp.149-345 4) Hakulinen, L. Suomen kielen rakenne ja kehitys. Toinen painos. Helsink, 1961. p.38 Some Patterns of Vowel Changes 49 (c) rated from the front / e / as an independent phoneme as the result of retraction operating on the first vowel which was caused by backness of the second vowel according to vowel harmony. Finnish Estonian Votic Livonian ehtoo Oka ehtago edeG 'evening' velka volg velka velga 'debt' Then Estonian came to possess the following first vowels like Votic, which contains a central high vowel (i) borrowed from Russian be- sides them. 5) In summary, to the first vowels of the northern group was added the phoneme /6/, and to those of the southern group the two pho- nemes /6/ and /e/. (d) Non-Frist Vowels in Baltic-Finnic Conducting researches into the non-first vowels of both groups, we can acknowledge the presence of vowel harmoy in Finnish, Karelian, Votic and South Estonia which keeps the front vowels / u / and / a / in non-first syllables. Finnish Karelian North South Votic Estonia Estonia kapy kapie keibi kiipii tsapu 'pine corn' kylii kiila kiila kaki tsiila 'village' 5) Ariste, P.A Grammer of the Votic Language. The Hague, 1968. p.1 50 Tamotsu KOIZUMI Finnish symbol <y> indicates the vowel phoneme / u /. In South Estonian and Votic the central vowel /e / <o> has extended to non- first syllables by dint of the driving force of vowel harmony. Finnish North Estonian South Estonian Votic vanhemp vanem vanOmb vanapi ' older' kaste kaste kaste? kase 'dew' In the southern group, however, the progressive power of vowel harmony is blocked by the back mid rounded /o/ in the second syllable, and the front mid rounded /o/ is not permitted to occur in non-first syllables. The co-occurrence of /o/ and front vowels within a word is regarded as primittive state of Baltic-Finnic sounds by L. Kettunen. Finnish Karelian North South Votic Estonian Estonian ndkii niikO nagu nago n'ako 'eye sight' From this we may certainly infer that the front mid rounded /o/ appeared in the comon Baltic-Finnic language and that after the dis- ruption of two major groups the central mid / e / was induced only in the southern group. Both of these mid vowels extended to non-initial syllables by the effect of vocalic harmony separately in each group. Then, the formal difference between the vowel harmony of the northern group and that of the southern group may be distinguished as follows. Northern group (Finnish, Karelian) (e) First vowels Non-first vowels a a a a 6) Kettunen, L. Vatjan kielen aannehistoria. Toinen painos. Helsinki, 1930. p.142 Some Patterns of Vowel Changes 51 Southern group (South Estonian, Votic)7) (f) First vowels Non-first vowels e o e o a a a a In Vepsian vowel harmony functions quite partly. In the South dialect it is more or less active, exerting its power only within the first two syllables, but it has disappeared in the North and Central d ialects. 8) South dialect North and Central dialect n'al'ktikla n'alktuda 'to feel hungry' As a supplementary explanation I must add that vowel harmony was lost in Livonian. In its West dialect seven vowel /a, a, o, e, e, u, i/ can occupy first syllables, while only four phonemes /a, 5, u, i/ occur as non-initial vowels. In Finno-Ugric, non-first primitive vowels are assumed to be res- tricted to /e, a, a/. Then, according to E. Itkonen's opinion the other non-first voweis /u, o, u/ of Baltic-Finnic were produced by the fusion of the final stem vowel and the reflexive suffix -ve as follows." *palave > *palav > *palau > *palo > Palo ' burning' *lukeve > *lukev > *lukeu > > luku 'reading' 7) Kettunen, L. Eestin kielen aannehistoria. Toinen painos. Helsink 1929. p.150 ApHCTE, II. A.H.E-E. Baapu. HpHOaJTHHCKO-HHCKHe REbIKH. REblKu HapodoB CCP III uHHO-yZOPCKUe u caMOOuuCKue REblKU. Mockba, 1966. p.82 8) 3aHHeBa, M. We M.14. MyAnolien. ameapb eenccicomo REblKa. JeHHH- rpaJ. 1972. p.725 9) Itkonen, E. Ober die suffixalen Labialvokale im Lappischen and Ostseefinnischen. Scandinavica et Fenno-Ugrica. Stockholm. 1954. pp.186-189 52 Tamotsu Koizumi *niikeve > *nakev > *naku > naku 'sight' It is worth noting that no mid rounded vowel /15 / was produced in the second syllable. Therefore, the last non-first vowel /o/ is likely to have spread from the first syllable to the remote ones under the power of vowel harmony, or a mid vowel /e/ was often rounded owing to progressive assimilation of the first rounded vowel, such as yids < yles 'up'. 10) Patterns of Vowel Changes In North Estonian by the end of seventeenth century the loss of vowel harmony had been completed, because /a/ was replaced by /a/ and /u/ by /i/ in non-first syllabless. 11) Finnish South North Estonian Estonian 1) kylti kielaa 'village' 2) syksy sukus ui 'autumn' 3) elo elo elu ou 'life' In addition to them the shift /o/ /u/ took place as shown by the example 3), and the central /e/ (o) was merged with the front /e/.