Re: Dropping from the root

Dirk Elzinga wrote:

>On Wed, 18 Jul 2001, Marcus Smith wrote:
>I found a Papago example as well:
>
>         es. 'is/was planting' (s. is s with an underdot)
>         e-i 'planted'
>
>I don't know what the -i is, but is clearly attached to the
>truncated root. Are there any -i's in Pima?
-i shows up in imperatives.

According to the Papago dictionary by Saxton, Saxton, and Enos, this verb
is not completely regular. The irregularities in the paradigm are:

esh imperfective, customary
ei perfective (rather than ee if it is a truncating stem, esh otherwise)
e'esha repretative (rather than e'esh)
ees imperative (rather than eshi)

I haven't encountered this verb in Pima very many times, typically only
when I misprounce e'es 'steal'. I haven't ever heard the final consonant as
[sh] though, always [s], so I think there might be some paradigm leveling
going on.




Marcus Smith

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

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