jeff_l
(Jeff_L)
#1
3.4 Ablaut 125
As noted above, we often get perfective ο (for expected e) corresponding
to lexical i. Moreover, the light stems in (97.c) all have initial ο although the
related stems (imperfective, VblN) have α or i vowels, not u. These facts
suggest that the input to perfective ablaut, including V-Height Compromise,
involves pre-ablaut reconfiguration, generally converting /i/ to /u/ or
specifying an underspecified full V as /u/. For example, PerfP -ora- 'open'
will come out if the input is reconfigured to /-uru-/ with initial /u/.
There is considerable dialectal variation involving ο versus e in
perfectives. T-ka strongly favors ο except in mediopassive derivatives; other
dialects have more cases of e in underived and causative as well as
mediopassive verbs. For details see §7.3.1.8, §7.3.1.15, and (for causatives)
§8.1.5.
3.4.8 Verb-stem-initial rules (gemination, syncope, initial short V)
3.4.8.1 Onsets of underived verbs
In the analysis used here, many verbs that usually appear in inflected forms
with a stem-initial short V are considered to lack this V in basic lexical
representations. The best guide to the basic form is usually the Imprt.
In the perfectives and inflected Shlmpf of heavy C-initial verbs, the onset
of the stem undergoes changes, including addition of an initial short V (which
appears as 3 or ae depending on the ablaut melody). I call this Stem-Initial
V-Insertion. This is all that is needed for many middleweight -CuCvC- verbs
(note the full vowel "υ"), which simply become perfective or Shlmpf
-vCuCvC-, and for most augmented -CuCu- (+ -t) verbs, which become
-vCuCv-t. By contrast, for other stem-shape classes, the inserted initial V is
followed on the surface by a CC cluster, which is produced either by
Stem-Initial Syncope if syllabically possible, or by CrGemination. Even some
-CuCvC- and -CuCu- (+ -t) verbs show CrGemination.
For A-grm and other Gourma dialects that avoid Stem-Initial Syncope, see
§3.4.8.3, below.
The V-Insertion rule is given as (99).
(99) Stem-Initial V-Insertion
A heavy (§3.4.1.4) C-initial verb grows an initial short ν in the
stems of the perfective system, and (except for causatives) in the
inflectable Shlmpf (but not the Imprt).
The rule does not apply to the unprefixable perfective stems of (mostly)
adjectival verbs (§7.3.1.11).
For T-ka, there is no reason to pre-specify the incremental short V as ae or
a. The surface ae or a can be accounted for by assuming that the incremental V
