Consonant gradation is a type of consonant mutation (mostly lenition but also assimilation) found in some Uralic languages, more specifically in the Finnic, Samic and Samoyedic branches. It originally arose as an allophonic alternation between open and closed syllables, but has become grammaticalised due to changes in the syllable structure of the languages affected.
Definition The term "consonant gradation" refers to a word-medial alternation of consonants between fortis and lenis realisations. The fortis strong grade appears in historically open syllables (ending in a vowel), while the lenis weak grade appears in historically closed syllables (ending in a consonant). The exact realisation of the fortis–lenis distinction differs between the branches. In the Samic languages it was realised through fortition, specifically lengthening, in the strong grade. In the Finnic and Samoyedic languages, there was instead lenition in the weak grade. Thus, the exact realization of the contrast is not crucial.
+ Examples of consonant gradation Language Alternation(strong : weak) Phonetic nature of alternation(strong : weak) Estonian : : Lengthoverlong : long Finnish : : Lengthlong : short Estonian : : Tensenesstense voiceless : lax voiceless Finnish : : Voicingvoiceless : voiced Finnish : : Manner of articulationstop : nasal Karelian : : Manner of articulationstop : fricative Finnish : : Manner of articulationstop : semivowel Nganasan : : Voicing + manner and place of articulationvoiceless glottal fricative : voiced bilabial stop Finnish : : Presence of segmentstop : zero Northern Sami : : Presence of segmentpre-stopped nasal : plain nasal Northern Sami : : Presence of segment + articulationpreaspirated stop : fricative Northern Sami : : Manner of articulationstop : semivowel Northern Sami : : Length + articulationlong stop + singleton : short semivowel + geminate Northern Sami : : Lengthlong : short Nganasan : : Voicing + manner and place of articulationvelar nasal + voiceless glottal fricative : bilabial nasal + voiced bilabial stop
The language groups differ in regard to their treatment sequences of a vowel followed by j or w in Proto-Uralic. In the Samic languages, the second part of these remains phonologically a consonant, and can thus close the syllable before it, triggering the weak grade. It also takes part in gradation itself, lengthening in the strong grade. In Finnic, on the other hand, these were treated as diphthongs, and were equivalent to long vowels in terms of syllable structure. Consequently, they did not close the syllable and did not affect gradation.
Consonant gradation is understood to have originally been a predictable phonological process. In all languages that retain it, however, it has evolved further to a less predictable system of consonant mutation, of morphophonological or even purely morphological nature. This is a consequence of later changes in the structure of syllables, which made closed syllables open or vice versa, without adjusting the gradation. For example, in Northern Sami, the only difference between and ('language', nominative and genitive singular respectively) is the grade; the final consonant that originally closed the syllable in the genitive form, namely -n, has disappeared (the same happened in the history of Estonian and Nganasan). Even in Finnish, which is relatively conservative with respect to consonants, there are many cases of strong grades in closed syllables and weak grades in open syllables, e.g. and ('rain', nominative and genitive singular). These, again, are the result of changes in syllable structure, with the original Proto-Finnic *sadek and *sategen following the rules more obviously. In addition, not all Finnish words that hypothetically could have gradation undergo it: for instance, the genitive form of 'car' is . Thus, the occurrence of gradation is not morphologically predictable anymore, it is a property of each individual word.
Historical connections There is no consensus view on the ultimate origin of consonant gradation in the Uralic languages. Three broad positions may be distinguished: Gradation in Finnic, Samic and Samoyedic are all connected to one another. Gradation in Finnic and Samic are connected; gradation in Samoyedic is an unrelated phenomenon. There is no connection between gradation in any of the three language groups, and the similarities are accidental.
In all three groups, consonant gradation has the same conditioning, the distinction between open and closed syllables. In this light, and in the absence of any evidence of the same system having existed in any unrelated language in the world, Helimski (1995) has argued that the latter two options should be rejected as implausible.
If a connection exists, it is also disputed what its nature may be, again allowing for three broad positions: Gradation is common inheritance (from either Proto-Uralic or Proto-Finno-Samic). Gradation is an areal phenomenon that has developed through language contact. Gradation has developed independently in Finnic, Samic, and Samoyedic, based on a set of common preconditions inherited from Proto-Uralic. The great geographical distance between the Finnic and Samic peoples on one hand, and the Nganasans on the other, leads Helimski to reject the second option of these.
Finnic languages The original effect of gradation in the Finnic languages can be reconstructed as a lenition of the consonant at the beginning of a closed syllable. Lenition resulted in geminate (long) stops and affricates being shortened, and in short voiceless obstruents /*p *t *k/ becoming voiced, while short voiced obstruents /*b *d *g/ became fricatives:
*pp → *p̆p *tt → *t̆t *cc → *c̆c *kk → *k̆k *p → *b *t → *d *k → *g *b → *β *d → *ð *g → *ɣ
Only stops and affricates were affected, not other consonants. Moreover, only the last member of a consonant cluster was subject to gradation, and single stops and affricates were only affected if they were not adjacent to another obstruent. Thus, two-obstruent combinations like kt, st and tk did not undergo lenition, nor did obstruent-sonorant combinations like kl and tr. The voiced stops *b *d *g generally lenited to fricatives unless they were preceded by a nasal. This change may have occurred already in Proto-Finnic, but is not found in Livonian and Veps. The fricatives later underwent further changes, and the dental and velar fricatives have been lost altogether in most Finnic varieties.
The weakened grades of geminate consonants did not merge with the strong grades of the singleton consonants in Proto-Finnic, and still counted as geminates for the purposes of syllabification. There remained for a period an intermediate quantity, half-long *-t̆t-, which still closed the preceding syllable. Consequently, a syllable ending with a geminate in the weak grade still triggered a weak grade on the preceding syllable as well. In Finnish, the half-long consonants eventually merged with the strong-grade singleton consonants, but in most other Finnic languages, the strong-grade singletons underwent a secondary lenition which prevented this merger.
Gradation later expanded to include a pattern *s ~ *h, presumed to reflect a former pattern *s ~ *z. This type of gradation only systematically appears in cases of word-final *s, which between vowels uniformly becomes *h: Finnish 'bush' has the genitive < . An example is also found after a stressed syllable, however, in the exceptional monosyllabic root *mees : *meehe- "man"; and in a fossilized form, in the postpositions lähellä "near" vs. läsnä "present", reflecting the adessive and the essive of a root *läse- "vicinity". In cases of root-internal *s, this pattern is not normally found (e.g. Finnish pesä 'nest' : plural pesät), though Votic later reintroduced a gradation pattern : here (pezäd).
Veps and Livonian have largely leveled the original gradation system, and reflect both weak and strong grades of single stops as ; this may be an archaism or a substitution of voiced stops for fricatives due to foreign influence (Russian for Veps, Latvian for Livonian). Except for northernmost Veps dialects, both grades of geminate stops are also reflected as .
Finnish
Finnish consonant gradation generally preserves the Proto-Finnic pattern fairly well. The conditioning of syllable structure is still visible in most cases, but it is no longer productive: gradation has become a grammatical feature.
Historical sound changes affecting realization of weak grades
The weak grades *p̆p, *t̆t, *k̆k of geminates coincided with plain *p, *t, *k. The weak grades *mb, *nd, *ŋg of nasal+stop clusters were assimilated to geminate nasals , , (ng). The weak grades *lð, *rð of liquid+ clusters were similarly assimilated to geminate liquids , . *β merged with *ʋ (v). This may have been lost later. For example, the 3rd person singular suffix *-pi is represented by a chroneme, i.e. a lengthening of the preceding vowel; e.g. *tule-βi 's/he comes' → Old Finnish tuleu → Modern Finnish tulee. Between two unstressed short vowels (i.e. in the weak grade of suffixal gradation), *ð and *h were lost (but not after a diphthong, cf. illative plurals in -oihin, verbs in -oida); these may be preserved in a variety of dialects. After a stressed vowel, *ð remained up until the dissolution of the Finnish dialects. It was lost entirely in Eastern Finnish, while Western Finnish dialects have varying reflexes: or in multiple western dialects, in the old Tavastian dialects, in archaic Southwestern and Northwestern dialects. As the area of shrunk throughout the 17th—19th centuries, standard Finnish developed as a spelling pronunciation of orthographical d, modeled after other languages such as Swedish, German and Russian. *ɣ also remained until the dissolution of the Finnish dialects. It was generally lost, but in the western dialects it may have become (most widely between a liquid and , as in kylki, järki below) or (between two close labial vowels, as in puku below). The geminate affricate *cc : *c̆c (found in e.g. *meccä 'forest') was fronted to a dental fricative *θθ : *θ. This sound has been lost in most dialects. Widely in Eastern dialects, both grades became , leading to loss of gradation. Standard Finnish was left with an unalternating (metsä : metsän), a spelling pronunciation similar to the case of . Other patterns found include unalternating ; alternating : (coinciding with original *tt); alternating : (in Eastern dialects, coinciding with original *ht); alternating : ; and alternating ~ .
These changes have made qualitative gradation become more complex, especially in the case of k. In standard Finnish, k is the phoneme with the most possible changes. It can disappear as in jalka 'foot' → jalan 'foot-Gen', or: Environment Change Strong Weak -uku- -yky- k→v puku kyky puvun kyvyn -lki- -rki- k→j kylki järki kyljen järjen -nk- /k/→ sänky sängyn /j/ has been lost in this position in Southeastern Tavastian, Northern Bothnian and Eastern dialects, resulting in kurki (crane) : kuren (crane's) instead of the standard form kurjen.
Short t also has developed more complex gradation due to various assimilations. Patterns include t : d (tietää : tiedän), rt : rr (kertoa : kerron), lt : ll (pelto : pellon), and nt ~ nn (antaa ~ annan).
Alternation patterns for p include p : v (tapa : tavan) and mp : mm (lampi : lammen).
Analogical extension of gradation