The Phonetics and Phonology of Old Armenian <V>, <W>, and Prevocalic <OW>*

Abstract

The Old Armenian letters &lt;v&gt; and &lt;w&gt; occur in nearly complementary distribution, but a century of scholarship has failed to resolve whether they denote separate phonemes, allophones, or allographs. The relation of these sounds to the vowel /u/ and interpretation of prevocalic &lt;ow&gt; spellings are also debated. It is argued that Old Armenian had a single phoneme /u/ realized as [u] in syllabic positions, i.e. between consonants or between consonant and word boundary, and [w] or [v] next to a vowel. In initial position the nonsyllabic allophone was realized as [v], including before [ə] &lt; pretonic *i, e.g.vasn[ˈvɑsən] ‘because of, with respect to’,vnas[vəˈnɑs] ‘harm, damage’, underyingly /uasn/, /uinas/. In word‐medial position the realization was [w] or perhaps [ʋ], which was written &lt;v&gt; afteroand &lt;w&gt; after other vowels. After a consonant, &lt;w&gt; occurs in the oblique case forms ofwo‐ andwo/ea‐stems, where it reflects dissimilation in the sequence *‐iyo‐&gt; *‐yo‐&gt; *‐wo‐; otherwise we find &lt;ow&gt; representing [əw], e.g. inlowanam[ləwɑˈnɑm] ‘wash’, gen.anowan[ɑnəˈwɑn] ‘name’, underlyingly /luanam/, /anuan/. The diphthongsaw,ew,iw,ovcan therefore be interpreted as sequences of vowel + /u/, as int‘iw/t‘iu/ ‘number’, gen.t‘owoy/t‘iuoy/.