Mongolic languages provide an interesting arena for attempts to link
diachronic studies to broad synchronic questions. A prime example is the origin
of Halh Mongolian phonology from its ancestor Old Mongolian. In Halh, there is
vowel harmony on the [+/-ATR] feature, which also controls dorsal consonant
[+/-high] variation (Svantesson 1985, Goldsmith 1985). Under Halh V-C
harmony [+high] velars are produced in a [+ATR] vocalic environment and
[-high] uvulars are produced when vowels are [-ATR].
Old Mongolian also possessed both vowel and V-C harmony, but based on
[+/-back] rather than [+/-ATR]. In Old Mongolian, [-back] vowels and
[+high] velar consonants harmonize, and [+back] vowels harmonize with
[-high] uvular consonants. While the most commonly used, cross-linguistically
attested system of phonological features (Sagey 1986) is perfectly capable of
describing both patterns (as I have just done), that description doesn’t provide
much insight into the phonological relationships taking place in either system,
or what underlies the shift between them.
This study uses philological analysis to directly characterize Old
Mongolian tokens that contain vowels and dorsal consonants in contemporary
text sources. Irregularities in both C-V harmony involving the velar stop [k] and
V-V harmony involving the back vowel [u] were identified through this method.
This represents the first attempt to consider self-reported surface forms by
speakers of Old Mongolian rather than relying on reconstruction from modern
languages. The identification of irregulars in Old Mongolian harmony
contradicts the traditional view from reconstruction work that V-V and C-V
harmony was entirely regular. This different view of the Old Mongolian
phonological landscape may have a significant impact on attempts to relate
Mongolic phonology to bigger questions in linguistics.Bachelor of Art
