accusative allomorphy in pre-Silindion

 In the language that developed into Silindion there
were three allomorphs of the accusative suffix. The
first was _n_, the second _an_, the third _en_. The
basic distribution was:

 _n_
Used with stems ending in a vowel; _t_; _s_ or _l_

 _an_
Used with stems ending in _j_; _d_; _st_; _nd_; _Vn_,
where _V_ was a back vowel; and syllabic _n_ (which
was counted as _Vn_ for syllable counting purposes).

_en_
Used with stems ending in _Vn_ where _V_ was a front
vowel; and _Vr_ where V was a front vowel.


_n_ Accusative Examples:
 spamo.n "willow" /spa'mOn/
 wa^jka.n "dragon /wa::j'kan/
 alarajje.n "moon-goddess" /a'larajjEn/
 a^jnu.n "snake" (a::j'nun/
 to:rni.n "night" (to:r'nin/
 lawat.n_ "an animal caught while hunting" /la'watn=/

 bukos.n_ "wizard" /vu'kOsn=/
 del.n_ "bundle" /'dEln=/

In Silindion these become:
 famon /fa'mon/
 vaikan /vaj'kan/
 alarien /a'lariEn/
 ainun /aj'nun/
 turnin /tur'nin/
 lavanta /la'vanta/  (with syllabic _n_ becoming /nV/,
where /V/ is a vowel harmonizing with preceding vowel)
 vukorna /vu'kOrna/  (same process as above)
 delde   /'dElde/

_an_ Accusative Examples:
  paRaj.an  "crow"  /'paSajan/ (the R is really the
voiceless version of the Czech sound represented by
r+hacek, I dont know that in SAMPA).

  manko^jnad.an "mixture" /man'ko::jnadan/ (the O is
extra long)

  ost.an "wind" /Os'tan/
  ajand.an "being, existance" /ajan'dan/
  la^wan.an "hunter" /la::'wanan/
  nisn_.an "order" /nisn='an/

These became in Silindion:
   passean  /'passean/
   mankoindan /mankojn'dan/
   ostan /os'tan/
   eandan /ean'dan/
   lavanna /la'vanna/  (metathesis, proceeding thus
from original: la::'wanan > la::'wan@n > la:'van@n >
la:'van@n@ > la:'vann@ > la'vann@ > la'vanna/
   nirnan /nir'nan/

_en_ Accusative Examples
  silin.en "star" /si'linEn/
  menr_.en "mountain" /mEnr='En/

 In Silindion these become:
   silinne /si'linne/ (with metathesis)
   merne /'mErne/

I'm pretty certain that _an_ also occurs with stems
ending in _Vr_  (where V is a back vowel), but I dont
have any examples on my mind at the moment. Also, _an_
occured with rare stems ending in _k_, _p_ and _w_,
such as:

   wermasap.an "ear of corn"  /wErmasa'pan/
   sesek.an "clasp" /sEsE'kan/
   kastuw.an "plain" (kastu'wan/

In Silindion, the historical forms are not found,
analogy having made them obsolete, except in the
earliest documents:

Nominative: vermasa, sese, kastu

Accusative:
 Old Silindion:                New Silindion:
   vermaspan /vErmas'pan/      vermasan /vErma'san/
   seskan /sEs'kan/            sesean   /'sEsean/
   kastuvan /kastu'van/        kastun   /kas'tun/


Anyway, I wanted to present this info, because I was
thinking about whether or not the original
distribution of the allomorphs makes any sense to any
of you, since I'm not sure if it does to me. I have
some ideas about why _an_ _en_ and _n_ occur where
they do, but they are not definite ideas.

 -Elliott








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