Seediq Inflection
From: | Kristian Jensen <kljensen@...> |
Date: | Friday, November 5, 1999, 14:50 |
I was at the university's linguistic library today and I found a=20
language with quite an interesting phonotactic method of=20
inflectional marking. It uses a manipulation of stem shape for=20
inflectional marking in almost (but not quite) the same way as in=20
Arabic. This language is called Seediq, an Austronesian language=20
spoken by some aborigines of Taiwan. Maybe one of you guys may=20
want to be inspired.
I'll try describing it below from memory:
--------------------------------------------------
Its consonantal inventory is:
p t k q ?
b d g
c
s h
m n N
l r
w y
Vowels:
i u
e o
a
The underlying root form is: CVCVC, with stress is regularly on the=20
penultimate (next-to-last) syllable. Both CVCe and CVCo are possible=20
in surface representations, but are interpreted as CVCay and CVCaw=20
respectively.
What's interesting is the restrictions imposed on the surface forms.=20
Vowels in the final unstressed syllables can only be either; <i>, <a>,=20
or <u>. Thus, forms like *CVCeC and *CVCoC are non-existent in the=20
surface forms, but are possible in the underlying forms. Furthermore,=20
word/syllable-final consonants can only be; <t>, <c>, <s>, <n>, <l>,=20
<r>, <w>, <y>, <q>, or <h>. Any, syllables found before the stressed=20
syllable only has [u] as the vowel, but this is generally left=20
unrepresented in the orthography.
In order to keep in line with the restrictions, gradation rules=20
exist for word/syllable-final consonants:
p,k,? -> t
b,d -> c
g -> w
m,N -> n
Similar for the vowel in a word-final syllable:
e -> a
o -> u
Here are some examples of inflection (using made-up roots):
UNDERLYING SURFACE
/qitah/ =3D <qitah>
+ -n- infix =3D <qnitah>
+ -an suffix =3D <qtahan>
/tulek/ =3D <tulat>
+ -n- infix =3D <tnulat>
+ -an suffix =3D <tlatan>
/bugaw/ =3D <bugo>
+ -n- infix =3D <bnugo>
+ -an suffix =3D <bgawan>
/paleg/ =3D <palo>
+ -n- infix =3D <pnalo>
+ -an suffix =3D <plegan>
---------------------------------------------------
Pretty neat, eh?
This sort of stem manipulation is perhaps doable in Boreanesian.=20
I'm inspired, so its back to the drawing table. ;)
-kristian- 8)