Re: Messy orthography (Re: Sound change rules for erosion)

Roger Mills scripsit:

> Various langs. within Indonesia which have also reduced the
> original canonic CVCVC form to CVCV have similar irregular suffixing
> procedures. It suggests, of course, that the finals _may_ still be
> present underlyingly, and that their loss is _relatively_ recent.
> But most speakers, I think, would claim that the consonant belongs to
> the suffix, not to the root.
The clincher is that -tia is used for all Maori neologisms and borrowings,
so unless we are to suppose that all borrowed verbs come in with an
underlying -t, the evidence says that -tia is now the regular ending,
and the other -Cia endings, which most verbs use, are irregulars.

> Buginese is a rather extreme example-- all final stops and liquids have
> reduced to /?/, but when you add the verbal suffixes, the /?/ changes
> to -r-, -s-, or -k-.  Most forms consistently choose just one; quite a few
> can have two, a handful have all 3, sometimes with slight changes in
> meaning.
Ho boy!  And when you consider that the script can't write anything but
CV syllables (coda consonants are just dropped), that must make written
Buginese the king of confusion indeed.

--
Deshil Holles eamus.  Deshil Holles eamus.  Deshil Holles eamus.
Send us, bright one, light one, Horhorn, quickening, and wombfruit. (3x)
Hoopsa, boyaboy, hoopsa!  Hoopsa, boyaboy, hoopsa!  Hoopsa, boyaboy, hoopsa!
  -- Joyce, _Ulysses_, "Oxen of the Sun"       jcowan@reutershealth.com