3.4 Ablaut 115b. length (full vowels)
χ-pcl Resit, LoImpfP 1st postconsonantal V is
lengthened
χ-f long imperfectives, final V in stem is lengthened
heavy VblN's, ablaut PIc. specific vowels
e-pclf PerfN 1st postconsonantal V (always
ae), if it is also the stem's
final V, becomes e
α-f heavy VblN's final-syllable short V (always a)
becomes αAgentives and minor nominalizations are disregarded here. Although one
can decompose them to some extent, these nominals have specialized shapes
associated with particular input stem types, and have a more templatic look
than the more productive morphological patterns referred to in (87).
The accent formatives in (87.a) account for the marked, nonlexical accents
heard on stem penults or finals. A minimal pair is PerfPI-bsa 'he vomited' and
Resit i-bsa 'he has (already) vomited'. The formative χ-f may be needed, or
may reduce to χ-pen, depending on how such ablaut plurals as t-i-nsdd
'fevers' (from Sg t-e-nasde) are analysed (§4.1.2.24). Accent formatives, like
lexical accents on noun stems, are subject to being submerged by Default
Accentuation, when the relevant syllable ceases to be the penult or final (e.g.
when suffixes are added). They are also submerged when an accented
directional clitic is added, or when (in T-ka) resyllabification of a word-final
CC cluster results in final-syllable accent. My practice is to write ablaut (and
lexical) accents in underlying representations in such cases
The length formatives in (87.b) provide for nonlexical full V's in verbs
and (under limited conditions) heavy VblN's. It is possible to have both length
formatives on a single LoImpfP verb stem, e.g. -bvlvjbvlvj-, Shlmpf
-sblsjbataj-, LoImpfP -t-iblajbalij-, where both the first and last i vowels have
been lengthened.
The specific-vowel formatives replace a short V by a particular full V. In
the PerfN, we get e replacing as in such examples as -vhlvk- 'destroy', PerfP
-ahlask-, PerfN -ahlek- with e. In heavy VblN's, we get an optional α
replacing schwa in such examples as verb -mvlvwlvw- 'shine', VblN
a-mlawbw varying with a-mlawlaw, the latter showing final-syllable a.
3.4.5 Ablaut formative association
In this section I show how the local formatives "target" an input segment.
In addition to these targeting issues, it should be mentioned that there are
some asymmetries among the formatives in terms of their distribution, and in