Metaphony

Inhistorical linguistics,metaphonyis a class ofsound changein which one vowel in a word is influenced by another in a process ofassimilation.The sound change is normally "long-distance" in that the vowel triggering the change may be separated from the affected vowel by several consonants, or sometimes even by several syllables.

For more discussion, see the article onvowel harmony.

There are two types:

Progressive(orleft-to-right) metaphony, in which a vowel towards the beginning of a word influences a subsequent vowel.
Regressive(orright-to-left) metaphony, in which a vowel towards the end of the word influences a preceding vowel.

Metaphony is closely related to some other linguistic concepts:

Vowel harmonyis sometimes used synonymously with metaphony. Usually, however, "vowel harmony" refers specifically to asynchronicprocess operating in a particular language, normally requiring all vowels in a word to agree in a particular feature (e.g.vowel heightorvowel backness). Most commonly, the triggering vowel is in the first syllable of the word (i.e., this is a type of progressive metaphony), as inTurkish,FinnishorHungarian.In some cases, however, the triggering vowel is in the last syllable, typically a suffix, as in many varieties ofAndalusian Spanish.
Umlautrefers to regressive metaphony, usually specifically of adiachronictype operating in the history of a language. The term "umlaut" is found especially in theGermanic languages(seeGermanic umlaut). In some other languages, other terms are used instead for the same process (e.g.affectioninOld Irish,simplymetaphonyin theRomance languages).

See also