4.1 Noun morphology 165
reduced after a preposition and is best considered stem-initial: t-ele 'shade'
(dser t-ele 'in the shade'), PI t-aliw-en.
In theory, a lexical stem-initial α or e is invariant (i.e. it is not reduced,
and is not replaced by PI i-). However, dialectal lexicographic work shows that
some noun stems have an initial α or e that is treated differently by different
speakers (or dialects). Moreover, for some nouns an individual speaker may
give "mixed signals," typically allowing initial α to undergo Prefix Reduction
to but unexpectedly retaining α in the PI instead of replacing it by i-.
Example (for an R speaker): Sg ά-sral 'wild fonio (grains)' with reduced form
^ae-sral (e.g. after a preposition, as in dasr "'se-sral 'in the fonio'), but PI
asral-aen rather than #1-svael-aen. So the Sg alternation points to a
segmentable vocalic prefix α-, while the invariant PI points to an
unsegmentable stem-initial a.
4.1.2.2 MaPl suffix -cen, -teen and FePl suffix -en, -ten
Nouns with unsuffixed ablaut plural have no MaPl or FePl suffix.
The MaPl suffix is normally -asn after a C, and -taen after a V Examples:
ά-xfaf 'mother's milk' with PI i-xfaf-aen, and aexxu 'monster', PI i-xxu-taen.
Note that plurality is also marked by the PI vocalic prefix i-. For exceptions
with -taen after a C, see (148.c-d) and (149) in §4.1.2.6.
There are a fair number of cases where the allomorph -taen is used after a
C-final (rather than V-final) stem. These generally involve CVC stems and
C-final loanwords with final-syllable lexical accent. See §4.1.2.6 for examples
and discussion.
The FePl suffix is -en after a C, which may be the stem-final segment or
inner Fe suffix -t-. Example: Sg t-e-dseri-t-t 'large antelope', PI t-i-dsera-t-en.
In the less common case where the FePl suffix is added directly to a V-final
stem, with no modification (such as extending the noun with a w), the FePl has
the form -ten (here I do not put a hyphen after t; see §4.1.2.3). Example: Sg
t-arba 'trap', PIt-arba-ten.
Many masculine nouns have unsuffixed ablaut plurals, and so of course
omit -asn or -taen (§4.1.2.15).
Some nouns have a slightly extended stem before MaPl -sen or FePl -en
The common extension involves an extra stem-final ...w- if the Sg stem is
V-final. This obviates the need for a postvocalic suffixal allomorph in many
cases, especially for feminine nouns. There are also some C-final singular
nouns that add ...Vw- with some vowel V before the PI suffix. See §4.1.2.7 for
examples and discussion.
