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OT: Berber syllabification; feminine and diminutive

From:Eric Christopherson <rakko@...>
Date:Sunday, November 30, 2008, 8:20
I'm reading a little about Berber, and I remembered that once I was
reading the Wikipedia page on some Berber language and it said
syllabification of resonants in it was very similar to the
reconstructed rules of syllabification for PIE. But now I can't find
it. Does anyone know where I might have seen it? (All I remember is
it was on Wikipedia, it was in an article itself, and the discussion
page for that article said something about it.)

Also, Wikipedia's page "Berber languages" says "the feminine (also
used to form diminutives and singulatives, like an ear of wheat)". I
believe I've run across another example of a language where the
feminine functioned as a diminutive; it was something Ethiopian. Is
this common cross-linguistically? Is it likely that feminine marking
often comes from diminutive marking? Or vice versa?

Replies

Eugene Oh <un.doing@...>
Eric Christopherson <rakko@...>