szótagharmónia

Szótagharmónia, often translated as vowel harmony, is a phonological process found in many agglutinative languages, most notably in the Turkic language family. It dictates that all vowels within a word, including suffixes, must belong to a specific class or set. This phenomenon affects the pronunciation and inflection of words, ensuring a consistent sound pattern throughout.

There are generally two main types of vowel harmony: front-back harmony and rounded-unrounded harmony. Front-back harmony requires all vowels in a word to be either front vowels (like e, i, ö, ü) or back vowels (like a, i, o, u). Rounded-unrounded harmony dictates that vowels must be either all rounded (like o, ö, u, ü) or all unrounded (like a, e, i). Many languages combine these two features, creating more complex systems.

For instance, in Hungarian, a prominent example of a language with strong vowel harmony, suffixes change their form depending on the vowels in the root word. A word with front vowels will take suffixes with front vowels, while a word with back vowels will take suffixes with back vowels. This system helps to distinguish grammatical functions and maintain phonetic coherence. While the core principle is consistent, the specific rules and the extent of vowel harmony can vary significantly between languages. It is a fundamental characteristic that influences word formation and the overall soundscape of these languages.