Re: Dropping from the root

Dirk Elzinga wrote:

> > An quick survey of many truncating words does reveal some tendancies
> > though. These should be taken with a grain of salt, pending a more in depth
> > study.
> >
> > - All rime deletions involve a high vowel and a simpleton coda
> > - Truncation doesn't seem to involve diphthongs
> > - Among the consonants, truncation only involves stops and nasals
> >
> > Some of these might be statistical accidents though, since there are only
> > two non-high vowels (opposed to three high vowels), and fricatives and the
> > one glide are not common word endings. Still, that makes you wonder about
> > diphthongs and the lateral escaping completely, both of which are common
> > word finally.
>
>A bright young scholar could make a killing ...
Here is an observation by a dense young scholar who would like to make a
killing someday:

I found some parallels to your esh > ei example in my verb database, so I
read every entry in the dictionary. The results:

1) one perfective deletes a fricative: hotsh > hot 'send'. I didn't see any
others.
2) esh > ei is a regular example of an irregular pattern, that is, it is a
member of some kind of verb class.
         esh > ei 'plant' (in my notes, the imperfective has a long vowel eesh)
         keesh > kei 'stand up'
         koosh > koi 'sleep'
         cuush > cui 'extinguish'
         geesh > gei 'fall'
         daash > dai 'put, place'

These contrast with:
         ko'omash > ko'omash 'play (a particular game)'
         ash > ash 'laugh at'
         chekosh > chekosh 'wrap around the ankle'
         hivsh > hivsh 'gird up'
         kom-biish > kom-biish 'confess' (borrowed from Spanish)
         dakosh > dakosh 'muzzle'
         todkesh > todkesh 'jerk w/ fright'
         vuush > vuush 'rust'

Other verbs with an -ei perfective include:
         behe > bei 'accept'
         ke'e > kei 'bite'
         maac > mai 'learn'
         ñe'e > ñei 'sing'





Marcus Smith

Unfortunately, or luckily,
no language is tyrannically consistent.
All grammars leak.
                -- Edward Sapir