3.2 Local assimilations and syllabification rules 67PI -i-). There are a small number of cases where a masculine C-initial stem
without vocalic prefix has a feminine counterpart with prefix t-. In these cases,
a short V may appear after the t- in the Sg, but it may be either a or ae, usually
harmonic to the V of the following syllable. The PI (if attested) has -i-, which
suggests that the -o- or -ae- in the singular is the Sg vocalic prefix rather than
an epenthetic vowel due to the phonology. The stems are generally loanwords,
often dialectal. Examples: kasya 'monkey', specifically female form
t-as-kaeya-t-t, PI t-i-kseya-t-en ; sakii ΊΟΟ-kilo sack', diminutive feminine
t-as-saku-t-t '50-kilo sack', PI t-i-saku-t-en.
Another combination where Fe prefix t- arguably calls for Schwa-
Epenthesis is in dialects where the Prefix Reduction form of Feminine Plural
prefix sequence t-i- is vowelless nt-0- before a CV-initial noun stem. This does
not apply to T-ka, our focal dialect, which in this position has nt-a-, whose -3-
must be analysed as a reduction (but not deletion) of -i-. However, we do get
"t-0- before CV-initial stems in T-md and several eastern dialects (§3.5.1).
Before CCV-initial stems, these dialects (like T-ka) have Va-. In the eastern
dialects, one might argue that the basic FePl Prefix Reduction form is "t-0-, in
which case the schwa in nt-3- is epenthetic (inserted to break up a CCC
cluster). However, even for the eastern dialects, I cannot accept an epenthesis
analysis here, since the schwa in ""t-a- preserves the accentual status of its
unreduced t-i- counterpart. If the -i- were deleted by Prefix Reduction, and
then (before a CC cluster) effectively "restored" as a schwa, one would have
difficulty explaining how the underlying accent on -i- is retained.
In verbs, the t- prefix is a subject prefix for 3FeSg and for all 2nd person
categories. Nevertheless, whereas the apparently parallel nominal Fe t- prefix
never loses its stop, the verbal t- prefix is regularly deleted before a CV-initial
stem; see Prefixal t-Deletion (35) (cf. §7.4.1.2). The deletion is not terribly
frequent, since most inflectable verb stems are V-initial. However, we do get
CV-initial stems in long imperfective stems, which have shapes like LoImpfP
-CdCC- and (with LoImpfP prefix -t-) -t-iCsCCuC-. Example: -bdss-
(/-bdssA-/) 'vomit.LoImpfP', 3MaSg i-bass, 3FeSg 0-bdss (for underlying
/t-bassA/), 2Sg bassae-d (for /t-bassA-aed/). There are also some adjectival
verbs whose perfectives begin with CV.
The other relevant subject prefix on verbs is 1P1 n- (or na-). Dialects differ
as to how this is treated before a CV-initial stem. For example, with -bass-
'vomit.LoImpfP', both η-bass and ns-bass are attested. The latter is typical of
T-ka, our focal dialect, but the former occurs in a number of other dialects. For
dialects with na-bdss, one could argue for a Schwa-Epenthesis rule.
Alternatively, we could propose that the basic form of the prefix is na- and that
the schwa is deleted by VV-Contraction before another V (§3.2.3.2).
There is also a set of processes affecting inflected verbs of the perfective
system, usually also the short imperfective (other than Imprt), of underived
verbs. These processes include insertion of a stem-inital short V, but in
combination with either gemination or syncope creating a CC cluster. This is