Re: Multiple forms possible in morphology

Philip Newton wrote:
> Do any of you have words which have more than one permissible form?
> Differing, perhaps, in formality or style, with one being a bit more
> stilted, or seeming a bit archaic?
>
..for endings where one was simplified from the other...,
> ...merely a phonetic simplification of the other?
> ...Or is one, perhaps, an older form which is still considered acceptable,
> if a bit old-fashioned?
Kash has lots of these; many are simply "colloquial", OK in everyday speech
but you wouldn't likely see them in the New Holunda Times.
--tele 'blue' < kundele (kuni+nele 'color-sky')
--similarly, many nominalized verb forms (añ+verb) are shorted by dropping
the /a/ but retaining/adjusting the initial C (as in tele:kundele)--
generally a tendency to avoid tri-/polysyllables.

The common word for 'priest'--mandil-- derives from agent-noun kamandil <
archaic (slash-and-burn days) vandil 'to clear an area for planting; to
clear a path thru the forest'. "Kamandil" was then applied to shamans, who
cleared the path to the spirit world.  "Vandil" itself is now an agric. term
meaning simply 'to clear/prepare a field for planting' (no more
slash-and-burn).

Archaic: one or two pronoun forms, esp. those formerly used by commoners to
nobility (very hoity-toity if you use them nowadays); the old inclusive 1st
pers. kila, ki- now only a dual 'you and I', rather formal/mainly in poetry.

A common construction dating to an older state of the lang.-- verbs of
motion, like cosa 'to go', with the destination marked with the _animate_
accusative -n (which long ago was the inanim. acc.) e.g. cosa fale/n 'go to
the market' (rather than strictly correct cosa ri faleye go LOC market/dat.
Or fosi 'to sail', çeva 'travel':  fosi~çeva holunda/n 'sail/travel to
Holunda'

A change considered somewhat substandard: shift of the accent from penult to
ultima in declined forms. This began with V-final forms like fále, where
correctly the genitive is "faléyi" [fa'le.i], the dative is "faléye"
[fa'le.e ~fa'le:]-- these then changed > falí, falé, Then the anomalous
accent was applied to _all_ inflected forms, so we now have e.g. Nom. fále,
Gen. falí, Dat. falé, Acc. falé (correct fále) or (anim.) Nom. kárun 'lord',
Gen. karuní, Dat. karuné, Acc. karunún or (bad!!) karún

Another "substandard" change: elimination of -N+C sandhi with the poss.
suffixes: karummi for correct karumbi /karun+mi/ 'my lord', and esp.
affecting the 3d pers. form: karunni for karuñi /karun+ni/ 'his/her/their
lord'.

I've been meaning to add a discussion of such changes to my website, but
haven't gotten to it yet............