Re: syllable importance
| From: | Doug Dee <amateurlinguist@...> |
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| Date: | Thursday, February 19, 2004, 0:48 |
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In a message dated 2/18/2004 12:27:47 PM Eastern Standard Time,
starvingpoet@PATMEDIA.NET writes:
>Furthermore, the inclusion and realization
>of various suffixes sometimes depends
>on the number of syllables in a word.
>I can't think of any examples for this--
>does anyone have an example?
In Dyirbal, the ergative case suffix is /-Ngu/ when added to a 2-syllable
noun stem ending in a vowel, and it is /-gu/ when added to a longer noun stem
ending in a vowel (according to RMW Dixon's grammar). The locative has a similar
alternation. I think this sort of thing is common in Australian languages.
Doug