vowelsmakes

Vowelsmakes is a theoretical concept in linguistics and constructed-language studies that describes a class of morphophonemic processes in which vowels themselves convey grammatical meaning. The core idea is that vowel quality, inventory, or position within a syllable can determine or alter morphosyntactic value, such as tense, aspect, mood, number, or voice, without requiring changes to consonantal segments. In this framework, vowels act as cues or triggers that map to linguistic categories, either through systematic vowel alternations within stems or through vowel choices in affixes.

Typology and mechanisms. Vowelsmakes can involve vowel harmony, vowel class assignment, or position-sensitive vowel triggers. Some proposed patterns link vowel height or backness to tense or aspect, while others rely on fixed vowel sets in the stem to indicate mood or agreement. It is often illustrated with constructed-language examples to show how a language might encode grammatical information primarily through vowels rather than consonants.

Example. In a hypothetical language Vesani, the verb root dal- expresses 'to see'. The final vowel of the stem marks tense: dal-i means 'saw' (past), dal-e means 'sees' (present), dal-a means 'will see' (future). Similar mappings can be constructed for nouns, adjectives, or agreement markers, with vowels serving as the primary carriers of grammatical function.

Significance. Vowelsmakes is chiefly discussed in the context of conlang design and theoretical phonology, highlighting how vowel systems might influence morphology and meaning. It is not a broadly attested phenomenon in natural languages, but it offers a framework for exploring the interaction of phonology and grammar.