Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: Vallian "final 'm'"

From:Alex Fink <a4pq1injbok_0@...>
Date:Sunday, February 25, 2007, 20:27
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