Visualization results

Vowel Harmony

6.6 Visualization results

We have already seen some of the visualization results for Finnish and Turkish during the presentation of the techniques for data processing and mapping. In this section, however, we will take a closer look at the results. Figure 6.3 provides the φ matri-ces based on the orthographic texts of 30 languages in our sample. The languages in the figure have been ordered automatically from left-to-right and top-to-bottom ac-cording to the strengths of the effects that they produce in their vowel successions, the average absolute φ value. This value summarizes the tendency for a language to show constraints in the sequences of vowels. It can thus be used as a measure on the basis of which languages can be compared.⁹ However, the measure does not only give higher values for those languages which have VH, but also for those which show a similar phenomenon (see below). Still, the value can be used as an automatically extracted feature that gives an overview of the constrained co-occurrences of vowels in a language, which most often corresponds to the presence of VH in the language.

As expected, the overall appearance after the sorting reveals that the languages which are more at the top of the figure display more saturated blocks than those at the bottom. Harmonic languages thereby have a tendency to show rather saturated blue blocks along the main diagonal (from left top to right bottom) and rather saturated red blocks on the inverse diagonal. This effect can be seen especially in the first three rows. From the second row onwards diagonal orientation is slightly less distinct, with color saturation getting less intense. Although some minor effects may be visible in the other matrices, there is a clear difference to the first languages where the harmony effects are dominant.

6.6.1 Finnish and Turkish

In this and the following sections, we will see how the visual analysis fits in with the description of the respective VH systems in reference grammars. The VH patterns for Turkish and Finnish were described in Sections 6.2.1 and 6.2.2 above. Theirφmatrices are repeated in Figure 6.4.

9The comparatively low value for Wolof is partly due to the orthographic conventions used in the Wolof Bible text that do not accurately reflect the patterns of vowel harmony that are active in the language (cf. Pulleyblank 1996).

Warlpiri (0.159) Turkish (0.151) Hungarian (0.108) Maori (0.097) Hixkaryána (0.095)

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Tagalog (0.087) Amele (0.081) Indonesian (0.067) Maltese (0.061) Cusco Quechua (0.061)

1/2/14 2:40 PM

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Finnish (0.059) Georgian (0.053) Swahili (0.051) Chamorro (0.047) Afrikaans (0.047)

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Wik-Mungkan (0.045) Abau (0.045) Highland Nahuatl (0.044) Potawatomi (0.042) English (0.039)

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German (0.036) Dutch (0.034) Basque (0.033) Wolof (0.032) West Greenlandic (0.031)

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Vietnamese (0.031) Latin (0.024) Haitian Creole (0.023) Nuer (0.020) Esperanto (0.013)

1/2/14 2:40 PM

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Figure 6.3: The φ matrices for 30 languages sorted according to decreasing average (absolute) φ values (rounded average in parentheses) from left to right and top to bottom.

134 | VOWEL HARMONY

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Figure 6.4: Theφ-matrix for Turkish (left) and Finnish (right).

In the Turkish matrix, the palatal harmony can be seen as two complementary blue blocks in thea- ande-columns spanning the vowels {a ı o u} and {¨o ¨u i e}, respectively.

The labial harmony clusters, on the other hand, are represented as adjacent two-cell blocks in the ı-, u-, ¨u- and i-columns, which cover the whole range of vowels in the rows. This is a clear sign that there are no neutral vowels in the language. The fact that all rows of the matrix are doubly filled with strongly saturated blue cells (e.g., {a, ı} for the vowel a in the first row) indicates that two harmony processes (palatal and labial harmony) are active in the language.

For Finnish, the picture is less clear-cut than for Turkish. However, two main blocks of vowels (in the upper left corner and center of the matrix) are clearly visible that represent the harmony clusters for front (center) and back (upper left) vowels.

The two harmony blocks are complemented by the two neutral vowels (the rows and columns on the bottom and right of the matrix marking the vowels i and e). They belong neither to the left nor to the right block and clearly indicate that the harmony process involves neutral vowels. Recall that the arrangement of the vowels (with the neutral vowels being separate from the blocks of front and back vowels) has been generated fully automatically.

6.6.2 Hungarian

Hungarian short vowels can be distinguished by the features in Table 6.12 (cf. Ringen 1980, 1988). Hungarian vowel harmony prohibits front and back harmonic vowels to co-occur in native, non-compound words. Non-neutral suffix vowels agree with the harmonic vowels in the root with respect to the [±back] feature whereas neutral vowels occur with both front and back vowels. If the root only contains neutral vowels, suffix vowels are usually front (Ringen 1980:136).

The automatically generated matrix visualization in Figure 6.5 clearly shows a conspicuous pattern, with two blocks of vowels in the top left and bottom right corner

Table 6.12: Hungarian short vowels.

Front Neutral Back

High ¨u i u

Mid ¨o o

Low e a

whose vowels tend to co-occur with vowels of the same block rather than with vowels from the other block. The top left block comprises the back vowels, while the bottom right block contains all front vowels. The neutral vowel i is placed in between both blocks.

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-1.0 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0

+ + + − − − −

a + + + − − − −

o + + + − − − −

u ⁱ + − − − + − −

− − − + + + +

e − − − + + + +

ö − − − − + + +

ü

a o u i e ö ü

Figure 6.5: Theφ-matrix for Hungarian.

Turkish, Finnish and Hungarian are well-known VH languages. This is clearly reflected in the matrices. The question now is whether it is possible to be alerted to languages showing harmonic or harmony-like patterns in the absence of any prior information. The overall comparison of languages in Figure 6.3 already shows that there is a clear difference to be seen in the visualizations for languages having VH and those lacking it. Now, I want to discuss two languages in more detail which differ in this respect but still reveal conspicuous patterns in their visualizations.

6.6.3 Warlpiri

In the φ matrix for Warlpiri (see Figure 6.6 on the left) a different pattern from those in Turkish, Finnish and Hungarian appears. This time, not all vowels show a conspicuous behavior, but only the vowels i and u take part in the harmony system.

It can be seen in the visualization that both vowels are not likely to co-occur within

words but rather have themselves as successor vowels.¹⁰ This effect is described in Nash (1986) as a restricted type of VH (both regressive and progressive, i.e., from right-to-left and left-to-right) only involving the vowelsi and u.¹¹ For instance, verbs with stem-final i change it to u if the past tense suffix -rnu is attached (regressive harmony). Progressive harmony changingu toioccurs with a large proportion of the nominal suffixes and enclitics as the following words and their suffixes demonstrate (see Nash 1986:86):

(1) kurdu-kurlu-rlu-lku-ju-lu child-prop-erg-then-me-they (2) minija-kurlu-rlu-lku-ju-lu

cat-prop-erg-then-me-they (3) maliki-kirli-rli-lki-ji-li

dog-prop-erg-then-me-they

The default vowel for all suffixes in the examples isu. If the last vowel of the stem isi, however, the suffix vowels change toi, as can be seen in (3). Thus Warlpiri shows VH in both directions. Since the underlying calculations do not take into account the direction of harmony spreading, both processes strengthen the results in Figure 6.6 (left). The positive (blue) and negative (red) cells in the matrix clearly show the non-co-occurrence ofu andi.

6.6.4 Maori

Maori is not a VH language, yet an effect which is not altogether dissimilar is produced by its morphology of partial reduplication (Harlow 2007:127-129). In the reduplication process, an abstract CV syllable is attached to the stem whose segments are specified through features of the corresponding CV segments of the base. Unlike VH, the vowels of the base and the reduplicand are always identical, rather than only sharing their harmonic features. In addition, reduplication does not constrain the co-occurrence of other vowels in stems and affixes. As can be seen in the matrix visualization in Figure 6.6 (right), this results in a conspicuous pattern along the main diagonal.

6.6.5 Swahili

Swahili shows the typical patterns of Bantu vowel harmony (cf. Wald 1990:999) that may be observed in the formation of certain derived verbal forms. Verbal bases with the vowels a, i, u trigger the suffix vowel i, whereas the vowels e, o lead to a suffix variant ine (Childs 2003:70).

(4)

-andik-i-‘write for’

(5)

-ruk-i-‘jump at, fly at’

10Note also that both vowels are separated by the vowela in the automatic sorting.

11Warlpiri has a very small vowel inventory of only three vowels (a, i, u; cf. Nash 1986:65).

VOWEL HARMONY | 137

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-1.0 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0

+ + −

i − − +

a − + +

u

i a u

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+ − − − −

a − + − − −

e − − + + −

u ⁱ − − − + +

− + − − +

o

a e u i o

Figure 6.6: Theφ-matrix for Warlpiri (left) and Maori (right).

(6)

-anz-i-‘begin for’

(7)

-som-e-‘study for’

(8)

-end-e-‘go for/to/toward’

The opposition of the vowel clusters {i, u, a} and {o, e} is visible in theφ matrix visualization (Figure 6.7 left) where the latter group of vowels forms a block in the top left corner of the matrix. The rows of the vowelseand i show the complementary blue cells for the respective vowel triggers.

6.6.6 Maltese

Maltese shows up high in theφ ranking although it is not generally considered to be

Im Dokument The Induction of Phonological Structure (Seite 150-158)

Vowel Harmony

6.6 Visualization results

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+ + + − − − −

a + + + − − − −

o + + + − − − −

u i + − − − + − −

− − − + + + +

e − − − + + + +

ö − − − − + + +

ü

a o u i e ö ü

+ + −

i − − +

a − + +

u

i a u

+ − − − −

a − + − − −

e − − + + −

u i − − − + +

− + − − +

o

a e u i o

u ⁱ + − − − + − −

u ⁱ − − − + +