Abstract In Nuer, a Western Nilotic language, a productive process of vowel mutation lowers certain vowels in the plural forms of reduplicated adjectives, while others remain unaltered. Sometimes, lowering is accompanied by diphthongization. This short paper asks what determines which vowels should lower, which should also undergo diphthongization and which should remain unaltered. The phenomenon is analyzed within Element Theory in which vocalic expressions are decomposed into a head element and a dependent element. A pre-specified, Semitic-type template is proposed alongside a constraint on Head Preservation. These two tools derive the entire set of attested and unattested mutations. It is then shown that the analysis can pave the way for a better understanding of other, similar vowel mutation processes in Nuer.

中文翻译：

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你能走多低？关于Nuer中元音突变的注释

摘要在西方尼罗河语言的努尔语中，元音突变的生产过程使复数形容词的复数形式中的某些元音降低，而其他元音则保持不变。有时，降价伴随着二甲双胍化。这篇简短的论文询问什么决定应该降低哪些元音，哪些应进行二元音化，哪些应保持不变。在元素理论中分析了该现象，在该理论中，语音表达被分解为头部元素和从属元素。提出了预先指定的Semitic型模板，以及对头部保护的约束。这两个工具可导出整套经过验证和未经验证的突变。然后表明，该分析可以为更好地理解Nuer中其他类似的元音突变过程铺平道路。