Comparison between European languages - Diphthong

Comparison between European languages - Diphthong

 

When two vowels meet adjacent to each other, they may form a diphthong. But how can we discern whether they are diphthong or not. From the analysis on Greek, I have found that:

When the last vowel is u or i, then it will mostly likely form a diphthong.

        (ai, ei, oi, au, eu, ēu, ou, ui - ai, ei, oi, au, ou, eu, hu, ui)

 

But does it holds for other European languages?

 

The picture becomes quite complex but interesting:[1]

1.          The rule seems to hold with some exceptions.

2.          Some languages added the semi-vowels to form diphthongs. E.g. English uses Ə, while Spanish uses j and w to form diphthongs (ja, je, jo, ju and wa, we, wi, wo.) Besides, Spanish has less diphthong in contrast to Greek, it has only ai, au, ei, eu, and oi. Thus, English and Spanish are mostly likely to form triphthongs too.

3.          Some languages, like Swedish and Danish, have no diphthongs, or at least very few (source: http://www.genealogi.se/sprakeng.htm).

4.          If we want to extend the rule to wider use, then I can re-model the rule as the last vowels will likely to be the vowel with upper tongue positions. The diphthongs used in British English shows the positions. ʊ and i (new symbol for IPA is I)

5.          When we expand our search for diphthongs, we can find that the upper "corridor" [2]is used more as the last vowels of a pair of diphthong. E.g. u, ʊ on the upper right, and on the upper left [I, Y] and [i, y](on the left-most corner) are widely used. With the addition of some semi-vowels [Ə] or approximants [w, j, ɥ], then we will have most of the other diphthongs.

6.          Since using approximants as the first vowels, then it is possible to use more vowels, rather than that in the upper corridor, to form vowels. If we don't count them, then we can limit our search.

7.          But some languages, use the left side of the vowel table, e.g. [e,ø], [e, œ[3]] æ, [a] in the last vowels. These usages are not prominent and usually used sparsely in some languages only.

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[1] Diphthongs used in many languages can be seen in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diphthong.

[2] Though ʉ can be taken as a member of this corridor, but it is used only in Norwegian ( /æʉ/ as in sau, "sheep"), so I don't list it here. Other five diphthongs in Norwegian use I and Y as the last vowels.

[3] This one used in Icelandic /jœ/ as in jötunn, "giant".

 

Verb Conjugation comparison between several languages

Verb Conjugation comparison between several languages

Compiled by Mr. Philip YIM (2008) printed on March 18, 2008

Comparison in Present Indicative Active

Branch	Greek	Italic			Germanic	Slavic	Red
Per/No	Greek	Latin	French	Spanish	German	Russian
	ō	1st	1st	1st	weak	I
	I loose	I praise	To speak	I love	To live	I live
1s	lu ō	laud ō	parl e	am o	leb e	живу	Ø
2s	lu eis	laud ās	parl es	am as	leb st	живёшь[1]	s
3s	lu ei	laud at	parl e	am a	leb t	живёт	ØT
1pl	lu omen	laud āmus	parl onz	am amos	leb en	живём	Mn
2pl	lu ete	laud ātis	parl ez	am áis	leb t	живёте	Tsz
3pl	lu ousin	laud ant	parl ent	am an	leb en	живут	Nt

Note: The analysis is based on regular verbs only. Ø means nothing is added.

 

The red letters are words that after the connecting vowels, which follow immediately after the present stem of the verbs.

1.          Stem (present) + vowels (connecting) + personal endings (without vowels, in red letters).

2.          You will find that the differences in conjugations in a particular language, say Latin, are usually different in the "connecting vowels" only.

3.          After eliminating the vowels, you may "see" the close resemblance between these languages. As a general rule, the vowels are not persevered even in related languages; but the consonants usually do.

4.          Spanish: Spanish has three regular classes of verbs, with infinitives ending in –ar (1^st conjugation), -er (2^nd conjugation), and –ir (3^rd conjugation). All are conjugated with the same endings, except the connecting vowel (the vowel ending: a, e, e/i). When Spanish is compared with Latin, Spanish seems to eliminate the 't' sound from Latin, and changes the 'mus' into 'mos.' Then it fits smoothly in the Latin shoe.

5.          Greek: Without connecting vowels: 1s- (w, mi) c.f. Latin ō /m; 2s- s; 1p- Greek men, Latin mus; 2p- Greek te, Latin tis; 3p- Greek sin, Latin nt. Higher similarities are on the 1s and 2s.

6.          French: In contrast to Greek, French uses s in 2s, and use no consonant in 3s. French uses n (as in Greek, in 1pl and 3pl) and add z and t to them respectively.  When compared with Latin, only the 2s and 3pl, follow the same form. The "s" in Latin, is compared to z in French (in 1pl and 2pl.)

7.          German: It shows a tendency to use less consonant. When compared to Greek, all the plural forms use only one consonant (n, t.) In contrast to Greek, men, te, sin. For fun, just uses the "last found" consonant to form German plurals. Supply a 't' to Greek 2s and 3s, then you get the German endings.

8.          Russian: When compared with Latin, you can imagine a selection of t and m from Latin (on 3s and all plurals; or similar to Greek, only adding t in 3s in Greek.)

 

Reference

German (Deutsche)

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[1] ш /ʂ/ sh in shut (voiceless retroflex fricative); ь / ʲ/ a sign which, placed after a consonant, indicates a softened pronunciation - The soft sign <ь> indicates that the preceding consonant is palatalized. This is important as palatalization is phonemic in Russian. For example, брат [brat] ('brother') contrasts with брать [bratʲ] ('to take'). palatalization - As a phonetic description, the secondary articulation of consonants by which the body of the tongue is raised toward the hard palate during the articulation of the consonant. Such consonants are phonetically palatalized, and in the International Phonetic Alphabet they are indicated by a superscript 'j', as [tʲ] for a palatalized [t]. Prior to 1989, several palatalized consonants were represented by curly-tailed variants in the IPA, e.g. [ʆ] for [ʃʲ] and [ʓ] for [ʒʲ] (see Palatal hook).

 

On Article: from historical comparative linguistics perspective

Supplement: On Article: from historical comparative linguistics perspective

 

Introduction:

Among the Indo-Germanic languages, the invention of article by the Greeks is truly a breakthrough. It is neither found in Sanskrit, nor in Latin.[1] The Greek article is first seen in Homer.

 

Development:

The definite article is developed from the demonstrative. Though Greek does not have indefinite article, but in fact this has been developed by LXX, by using the numeral for one ( ei(v) see Lesson 32.)[2] E.g. Judge 13:2 one/a man a)nh\r ei(~v.

        Rules: demonstrative (that) à definite article (the)

                  Numeral (one) à indefinite article (a, an)

Other languages have followed this lead.

From Latin ille (that, those) develops definite articles for Italian (il, la), Spanish (el, la), and French (le, la.) The first is for masculine nouns, while the second is for feminine nouns.

From Latin ūnus, ūna (one) develops indefinite articles for Italian (un(o), una), Spanish (un(o), una), and French (un, une.) The first is for masculine nouns, while the second is for feminine nouns.

In German, der (die, das) is used as demonstrative, article, relative. Ein denotes both one (numeral), and indefinite article (a, an). It is why the Germans usually use "one" for "an" of English.

In English, the same picture applies. Before 950, "the" is derived from Middle English, as uninflected singular of the demonstrative pronoun (that.) [3] "An" is from Middle English ān, which is "one" in a weakened sense. "A" is from Middle English, originally preconsonantal phonetic variant of  "An".

 

Subject: language, Greek, English

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[1] Robertson, p.754.

[2] Conybeare, p.25. It is believed that due to the Influence of Hebrew, the LXX writers invented indefinite article from the Hebrew word for one. Note that Hebrew does not have indefinite article too.

[3] Webster p.1965.