Re: Vallian "final 'm'"

On Sun, 25 Feb 2007 14:35:22 +0000, Jeff Rollin <jeff.rollin@...> wrote:

>Hi list,
>
>In my language Vallian, original final "-m" changed to "-n," whilst the stem
>form of words originally ending in "-m" retained "-m". However, I am also
>proposing that, under the influence of a neighbouring language, animate
>nouns gained an accusative ending -m, which did not change the status of
>word-final "-n" in the non-accusative.
>
>Explanation: Given a word "maran", "mother", the relevant forms are:
>
>Nom. sing.: maran (including consonant gradation t -> r in closed syllable)
>
>Oblq. stem.: matam(-e)- (no consonant gradation in open syllable)
>
>Gen. sing.: matamen
>
>Acc. sing.: matamem
>
>Oblq. plur. stem: matami-
>
>Gen. plural.: matamin
>
>Acc. plural: matamim.
>
>Is this credible?
My initial reaction was "no, not really": if V changed final /m/ to /n/
unconditionally, I'd expect its phonotactics after that to simply rule out
final /m/, so that it wouldn't be likely to borrow anything with a final /m/
unchanged.

So I could see this happening if you posit another change reintroducing
final /m/.  Perhaps loss of some final vowel (although that could disrupt
consonant gradation)?  Or maybe, if you keep prenasalised consonants, final
/mb)/ (that is, /~b/) was once allowed but simplified to /m/; that suggests
that there would also have been final /p/, which you'd have to eliminate
somehow if you didn't want it.

You could also postulate enough influence from this neighbouring language
that V regained final /m/ entirely through borrowings from it.  Then you'd
get final /m/ in a number of borrowed stems as well.

Alex