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Re: affection regression progression ???

From:Roger Mills <romilly@...>
Date:Friday, February 28, 2003, 22:56
Aidan Grey wrote:


> Is affection more likely to be regressive or progressive? Will the same > lang show both, or show primarily one of them? I'm trying to determine > sound laws, and this bit has me stumped.
In theory it could work both ways-- underlying o..i > ö..i (regressive, as in Germanic) underlying o..i > o..y (progressive, Turkish?) There can also be a raising/lowering affect-- underlying i...a > e...a or i...e underlying u..a > o...a or o...a Both are seen (with some irregularity) in Polynesian historical phonology. IIRC Tonga kula 'to blush', but kulokula 'red' (in my favorite group of Indonesian langs.) AN *sukat 'to measure' > Proto **su?at > No affect in Leti suat-, Regressive in Moa soat-, then progressive in Kisar hook- I imagine there could be consonant-affects too, e.g. an initial nasal could cause all succeeding stops to > nasal, or prenasalized?? This happens to a small extent in some Indo. languages (either historically, synchronically or both!) e.g. *mayang 'coconut blossom' > Ngaju Dayak mañang; the various nasal prefixes also affect internal /y/ the same way, but I can't find my dictionary at the mo.

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Roger Mills <romilly@...>