Patterns in Erzya suffixes: A case of vowel-consonant harmony
Patterns in Erzya suffixes: A case of vowel-consonant harmony

Summary/Abstract: This paper observes the regularities of Erzya vowel-consonant harmony through the alternations and lack of alternation in inflectional suffixes. Although Erzya harmony can apparently be analysed in an autosegmental framework as the progressive spreading of a unary feature for palatalisedness and frontness, there are phenomena which are problematic for such an analysis. These are the avoidance of the alternation of sibilants, the cases of regressive assimilation and the behaviour of the inversely alternating suffixes.

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