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The Permic or Permian languages are a branch of the Uralic languages language family. They are spoken in several regions to the west of the Ural Mountains within the Russian Federation. The total number of speakers is around 950,000, of which around 550,000 speak the most widely spoken language, Udmurt language. Like other Uralic languages, the Permic languages are primarily agglutinative and have a rich system of grammatical cases. Unlike many other agglutinative languages, they do not have vowel harmony.
The earliest Permic language to be preserved in writing was Old Permic or Old Zyryan, in the 14th century.
The Permic languages have traditionally been classified as Finno-Permic languages, along with the Finnic, Saami, Mordvin, and Mari languages. The Finno-Permic and Ugric languages together made up the Finno-Ugric family. However, this taxonomy has more recently been called into question, and the relationship of the Permic languages to other Uralic languages remains uncertain.
A peculiarity of Permic is the occurrence of the voiced consonants such as *b, *g word-initially even in inherited vocabulary, apparently a development from original PU voiceless consonants.
The Proto-Permic consonant inventory is reconstructed as:
This inventory is retained nearly unchanged in the modern-day Permic languages.
Komi has merged original into and undergone a word-final a change → in many dialects, while Udmurt has changed word-initially → or . is retained only in some Udmurt dialects; in other Permic varieties it has become next to , next to central vowels, next to .
In later Russian loanwords, the consonants may occur.
The consonant was marginal and occurred only word-initially or after a word-initial , generally traceable to diphthongization of the close back vowel of the 2nd series. An exceptional word is the numeral "six", , which in Komi is the only native word root with an initial cluster.Bartens 2000, p. 51-52
Literary Komi and literary Udmurt language both possess a seven-vowel system . These are however not related straightforwardly, and numerous additional vowels are required for Proto-Permic, perhaps as many as 15 altogether. The reconstruction of Proto-Permic vocalism and its development from Proto-Uralic has always been a puzzling topic, for which there are several models. There is general agreement on the existence of two series of , one of which results in modern in literary Udmurt and literary Komi-Zyryan, the other in correspondences of Udmurt to Komi (but in the Komi-Yazva language). Proposed distinguishing factors for these include length (), tenseness () and Vowel height ().Bartens 2000, p. 55-56
Here is the vowel table used in Wiktionary:
In noun roots with certain final clusters, the second consonant surfaces only when followed with a vowel in inflected or derived forms :
Udmurt has similar alternation for a number of other clusters of the shape voiced consonant+/m/, while Komi-Zyryan adds a number of clusters of the shape voiced consonant+/j/.Bartens 2000, p. 69-71
The verb root for 'to come': Udmurt лыкты- , Komi локты- also shows alternation to plain /k/ in e.g. the imperative (in Udmurt only dialectally).Bartens 2000, p. 178
Classification
The extant Permic languages are:
History
The word Permian can be traced back philologically to the Russian word Perem (Перемь) or Perm (Пермь) which is found in medieval Russian chronicles. The word was initially used to designate certain territories, including the lower reaches of the Northern Dvina, as well as the area bounded by the Pechora, Vychegda and Kama rivers in the north, west and south, and the Ural Mountains in the east, which was incorporated into the Russian state in the late 15th century. The word Permian was then used to designate the non-Russian peoples who lived in there, which mostly included the Komi peoples, and the Russians later began using the appellation Zyrian. From the 19th century, the word Permian was used in scholarly writing to designate the Zyrians and the Udmurts.
Phonology
Proto-Uralic word roots have been subject to particularly heavy reduction in the Permic languages.
+Proto-Permic vowels
! rowspan="2" ! colspan="2"Front
! colspan="2" Central
! colspan="2" Back *a 𐍐 а а a а *a, *ä *å 𐍐 а а a у *a *ä 𐍩 ӧ ӧ ӧ е *ä, *e, *i Dialectally, Udmurt *ä > ӧ *ɔ 𐍩 о о о у *ä, *e, *i, *ö, *ü *o 𐍞 о о у у *a, *ë, *i, *o, *u Udmurt *wo- > ва-
Beserman *wo- > ўа-
Irregularly, Udmurt *o > ы/и
Irregularly, Beserman *o > ө *ɛ 𐍔 е е е о *ä, *e, *i (*ö, *ü) Next to palatals, Udmurt *ɛ > е
Irregularly, Udmurt *ɛ > e *e 𐍱 е е и о *ä, *e, *i (*ö, *ü) Next to palatals, Udmurt *e > е
Irregularly, Udmurt *e > e *ɔ̇ 𐍩 ӧ ӧ ӧ о *ä mainly Before *l, Udmurt *ɔ̇ > а
Irregularly, Udmurt *ɔ̇ > а *ȯ 𐍩 ӧ ӧ ӱ ӧ *o, *u mainly Udmurt unstressed *ȯ > ы
Beserman unstressed *ȯ > ө *ɔ̈ 𐍩 ӧ ӧ ӧ ӧ *ö, *ü Udmurt unstressed *ɔ̈ > у
Irregularly, Komi *ɔ̈ > е *ö 𐍞 о о у у *ä, e, i, ö, ü Beserman *ö > ө *u̇ 𐍨 ы ы ө ы *u, *ü mainly Beserman *u̇ > ө *i 𐍙 и и и и *i, *e mainly *u 𐍣 у у у у *a, *o mainly Irregularly, Udmurt *u > ы/и
Irregularly, Beserman *u > ө *ü 𐍣 у у у у *ä, *e *i, *ö, *ü Beserman *ü > ө
Irregularly, Udmurt *u > ы/и *a 𐍐 а а a а / о *ä 𐍩 ӧ ӧ ө е *i 𐍙 / 𐍨 и / ы и / ы и / ө и / ы / у different realisations in
dialectal Udmurt
Morphophonology
Noun Word root in the Permic languages are predominantly monosyllabic and invariable with the canonical shape (C)VC. CV roots, such as Udmurt ву /ʋu/, Komi and Permyak ва /ʋa/ 'water', and (C)VCC roots, such as Udmurt урт /urt/, Komi орт /ort/ 'soul', exist as well. In Udmurt, there are furthermore a number of bisyllabic roots, mostly of the shape (C)VCɯ.Bartens 2000, p. 66
син 'eye' шеп 'ear of corn' кык '2' мус 'liver' мыш 'back' юсь 'swan'
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
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