3.4 Ablaut 143and Medial V-Shortening. The best evidence for this is causative -s-undu-
'churn', with the u in the hypothesized position (PerfP -ass-undo-, etc.). If this
idea is accepted, it remains to consider the long imperfectives of the underived
stem, e.g. LoImpfP -nlddu- 'be churned'. With input -undo-, we need a pre-
ablaut reconfiguration to -nuddu-. We could get this to -naddu- by applying
LoImpfN and Prohib -naddu-. LoImpfP -nlddu- can be derived from this
-naddu- by adding χ-pcl and χ-pcl.
The u-Spreading rule is formulated as (119).
(119) u-Spreading [all dialects except A-grm]
a. In an inflected verb or VblN with medial-syllable u and a
subsequent full V, both of which are within the domain of an
<H> melody, the quality features (round, back) of u are copied
onto this subsequent V if either
a) the original u is shortened to a (by Medial V-Shortening),
or
b) the original u is in the syllable immediately preceding
that of the targeted full V.b. In the bisyllabic causative type -s-uCvC-, the LoImpfP -s-iCuC-,
the back and rounded features of u are transferred (not just
copied) to the full V of the final syllable, leaving the first V in
the form i as the unmarked high full V.In practice, u-Spreading can only apply to imperfectives and VblN's, since
there are no perfectives that have a medial u, a subsequent full V, and
melody.
A formulation of Medial V-Shortening requiring the χ-f ablaut formative
will work for the long but not short imperfectives or VblN's. A formulation
based solely on syllabic shape ...CuCC(vC)u- without direct reference to
ablaut can cover both long and short imperfectives, but does not account for
the failure of shortening to apply to the u of PerfP -sjjujja- 'load' or -ajjussa-
'go south'. Medial V-Shortening is also often associated with u-Spreading in
both long and short imperfectives, but cases like LoImpfP -t-ajaejja- with
medial /a/ shortened to ae demonstrate that Medial V-Shortening can apply in
the absence of u-Spreading.
(120) Medial V-ShorteningIn verb stems and VblN's ending (after basic ablaut formation and
u-Spreading) in ...CuCC(vC)u(C)-, i.e. if there is a medial full V
followed by a CC cluster and also a full V in the final syllable, if