vowel harmony
Noun
Meaning
vowel harmony (usually uncountable, plural vowel harmonies)
(phonology) A phonological process in some languages that sets constraints on which vowels may be found near each other or within a word, such as back vowels or front vowels; sometimes resulting in variant affixes, clitics or similar variations.
Vowel harmony is an important aspect of Mongolian.
Examples
As a consequence, Finnish speakers often have problems with pronouncing foreign words which do not obey vowel harmony.
Even among languages with vowel harmony, not all vowels need participate in the vowel conversions; these vowels are termed neutral.
Finally, languages that do have vowel harmony often allow for lexical disharmony, or words with mixed sets of vowels even when an opaque neutral vowel is not involved.
From vowel harmony it follows that the initial syllable of each single (non-compound) word controls the frontness or backness of the entire word.
Helsinki slang has slang words that have roots violating vowel harmony, e.g. Sörkka.
In standard Finnish, these words are pronounced as they are spelled, but many speakers apply vowel harmony – olumpialaiset, and sekundaarinen or sekyndäärinen.