Cwendaso: when two diphthongs collide

Ok, here I begin to enter into the realm of the absurd, putting four vowels
in sequence and seeing which ones come out on top.  I created 6 new verbs
and 6 new nouns for this excercize but used yesterday's prefixes.  The
examples are written up a little differently than the ones in my previous
posts.

<nggei-eimisat> --> <nggeimsat>     'to have run recently'
<apai-eimikh> --> <apayeimikh>     'little person'
<koi-eimisat> --> <koyemisat>     'to run hard'
<teu-eimisat> --> <teweimisat>     'to run frequently'
<ntau-eimisat> --> <ntaweimisat>     'to rund again'
<khatou-eimisat> --> <khatoweimisat>     'to run suddenly'

<nggei-aigdng> --> <nggeyaigdng>     'to have sung recently'
<apai-aisadh> --> <apaisadh>     'little flute'
<koi-aigdng> --> <koyaigdng>     'to sing emphatically'
<teu-aigdng> --> <tewaigdng>     'to sing frequently'
<ntau-aigdng> --> <ntawaigdng>     'to sing again'
<khatou-aigdng> --> <khatowaigdng>     'to sing suddenly'

<nggei-oima> --> <nngeyoima>     'to have hunted recently'
<apai-oikhn> --> <apayoikhn>     'little claw'
<koi-oima> -->  <koima>     'to hunt hard'
<teu-oima> --> <tewoima>     'to hunt frequently'
<ntau-oima> --> <ntawoima>     'to hunt again'
<khatou-oima> --> <khatoima>     'to hunt suddenly'

<nggei-eudim> --> <nggeudim>     'to have floated recently'
<apai-euk> --> <apayeuk>     'little hole'
<koi-eudim> --> <koyeudim>     'to float well'
<teu-eudim> --> <teudim>     'to float frequently'
<ntau-eudim> --> <ntaweudim>     'to float again'
<khatou-eudim> --> <khatoweudim>     'to float suddenly'

<nggei-auzl> --> <nngeyauzl>     'to have fallen recently'
<apai-aurad> --> <apayaurad>     'little bone'
<koi-auzl> --> <koyauzl>     'to fall hard'
<teu-auzl> --> <tewauzl>     'to fall frequently'
<ntau-auzl> --> <ntauzl>     'to fall again'
<khatou-auzl> --> <khatauzl>     'to fall suddenly'

<nggei-oufl> --> <nggeyoufl>     'to have broken recently'
<apai-outhu> --> <apayouthu>     'little comb'
<koi-oufl> --> <koyouful>     'to really break'
<teu-oufl> --> <tewoufl>     'to break frequently'
<ntau-oufl> --> <ntaufl>     'to break again'
<khatou-oufl> --> <khatoufl>     'to break suddenly'

The most notable thing is that two like diphtongs coalesce into one instead
of the high vowel in the first vowel becoming a glide.  I think that this
can be accounted for (in the dialects in which it occurs) by the speakers
having originally pronounced the vowel series with a glide in the middle of
it, but pronouncing the glide fairly weakly, which eventually gave
something of an over-lengthened diphthong, which then shortened into a
regular length diphthong.  A weakly pronounced glide could also account for
the apparent irregularity in <khatou-oima> --> <khatoima>,
<nggei-eudim> --> <nggeudim>, <ntau-oufl> --> <ntaufl>, and <khatou-auzl>
--> <khatauzl> if there is also something going on with the heights of the
vowels shifting somewhat in some of these examples.

I'm not sure that I've accounted for everything, though.  How does it look?

Isidora

Replies