Nyelvtudományi Közlemények 103. kötet (2006)
Tanulmányok - Tamás Ildikó: The Lule Saami vocalism 7
In the second type of alternation, the marginal vowel is raised by one degree and hence the central vowel appears as an allophone one degree higher, too. In the third type, the second-syllable vowel is lowered by two degrees and this affects the diphthong in the first syllable in a way that it is also lowered by two degrees [ie] > [eä]. The above examples can only be explained by height harmony that, in the present case, does not produce a perfect height agreement within the foot (which, in the above examples, coincides with the whole word); rather, it results in a coordinated height shift or covariation. With the exact "joint movement" of the central and marginal vowels the balance in the foot, that is, the Vc-VM relation, is kept. This type of harmony works within the boundaries of the two-syllable rhythmic unit, the foot. In a four-syllable (two-foot) word it does not work, for the diphthongs (ie and ce), participating in the alternation, have a restricted distribution and can only occur in central (first-syllable) position. Words with more than two or three syllables are usually compound or derived words and they do not qualify as words from the viewpoint of harmony. Thus, harmony only works in two-syllable words that only have one rhythmic unit. The variation in the first syllable only involves front vowels; the diphthongs oa and uo and back monophthongs are excluded from it. 5.2. a-harmony I have coined the term "a-harmony" for the sake of simplicity and perspicuity, given that this type of harmony includes the characteristics of both roundness and height harmony. Words containing a are mainly homogeneous roots (they only contain a), for example, bärrät 'eat', lähkkät 'read, learn', dällä 'fire', jähkä 'river'. In the neighbouring Northern (Norwegian) Saami dialect, all these words have an a in the second syllable (see lpN borrat, lohkat, dollajohka), so in Lule Saami the marginal a has been labialized (Sammallahti 1998: 21). However, the nominative roots of some nouns and non-finite forms of some verbs have an e in their second syllables (e.g., manne 'egg', Mäskke 'Moscow', jähtet 'migrate', gähtset 'watch'). In the paradigms of the e-root words, e alternates with á (for verbs in Sgl-3, and for nouns in Sglll), except if the vowel in the first syllable is ä, because in this case, instead of the regularly expected á, we get an ä (e.g., goahte 'tent' SgNom - goahtáj Sglll, but Mäskke SgNom -Mässkäj Sglll; and boahtet 'come' Inf. - boadáv VxSgl, but jähtet 'migrate' Inf. - jädäv VxSgl). Again, we see a synchronic counterpart of a diachronic process, because in the paradigm the marginal á labializes (and becomes higher) under the effect of a-harmony. The regular paradigm of jähtet would be the following:
