[ʌ]→[y]Certainty: 5/5Commonality: 2/5

Fronting Rounding Vowel harmony Attenuation Celtic Turkic

Open-mid back unrounded vowel to Close front rounded vowel

The shift from the open-mid back unrounded vowel [ʌ] to the close front rounded vowel [y] is a rare but well-documented phenomenon in Celtic languages, where it occurs as part of the process of 'attenuation' or 'slenderization'. This involves a dramatic fronting and rounding of back vowels when followed by palatalized consonants.

Phonetic Effects

Fronting, Rounding, Vowel Raising, Attenuation

Language Examples

Scottish Gaelic Celtic

mull [mʌL̪ˠ]→muill [myLʲ]— The broad vowel [ʌ] (orthographic 'u') shifts to the slender front rounded vowel [y] (orthographic 'ui') when the following consonant is palatalized (slenderized) in the genitive case or plural.

punnd [pʰʌnt̪]→puill [pʰyLʲ]— Example of 'u' [ʌ] alternating with 'ui' [y] in morphological paradigms.

Bashkir Turkic

[ʌ] (ы)→[y] (ү)— Rounding and backness harmony: In suffix vowels, the mid-back unrounded [ʌ] (realization of /ɯ/) alternates with the front rounded [y] to match the features of the root vowel.

Related Transformations

Reverse

More Rounding Shifts

[ã] → [õ] — Raising [e] → [o] — Backing [ɡʱ] → [ʒ] — Palatalization [ɡʲ] → [dz] — Fronting [g] → [ɡʲ] — Secondary Palatalization

Sources & References

Spotted a mistake or have a better example?

EchoDrift is community-driven. You can suggest a change directly through GitHub.

Propose an Edit on GitHub