On Wed, 09 Jun 2004 07:22:28 +0000, elmeras2000
<
jer@...> wrote:
>--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer <mcv@...> wrote:
>
>> The EA 1st and 2nd p. sg. markers, as well as the reflexive,
>> are voiceless 1. *-k > -ng, 2. *-t > -n, 3R. *-c > -ñ, while
>> other suffixes, such as the dual and plural are voiced (du.
>> *-g > -k, pl. *-d > -t). The voicing of the dual and plural
>> markers is shared by EA, Uralic and Altaic [e.g. pl. nom.
>> *-atu > *-(a)d > Ural-Esk *-d (> Ural -t, Esk. -t), Alt.
>> *-r; pl. obl. *-ati > *-(a)d^ > EA -t(?), Ural *-j, Alt
>> *-r2]. I see no reason elsewhere to separate the consonant
>> of the 2sg. from that of the plural (both PN *t). The lack
>> of voicing in the 1/2 sg. and refl. forms in EA must then be
>> the result of early loss of the final vowel.
>
>Do you mean: The voicing of the number markers *-g and *-d reflect
>earlier presence of a following vowel as opposed to none after the
>person markers *-k, *-t, *-c?
Yes. At least that's what I thought it was.
The lenition in intervocalic position can also be seen in
e.g. Uralic (Finn. G.pl. -De-n) and Altaic (pl. *-la-r <
*-la-d, pron.pl. *-(i)r^ < *-d^). However, in Uralic the
lenition (and sometimes the final vowel) is also present in
the 1/2 sg. possessive/personal affixes (e.g. Nenets -w, -r,
-da / Selqup -mI/-m/-p, -lI/-l, -tI/-t, pointing to
Proto-Samoyed *-m&, *-d&, *-za). Only the 1sg.
intransitive, attested only in Selqup and Hungarian, has *-k
(with no apparent lenition or following vowel).
Eskimo-Aleut has generalized intransitive *-k as the 1st.
person marker everywhere (-k-a, -ng), so perhaps that was
the model followed by 2sg. *-tV in becoming EA *-t (> -n),
without lenition.
Another possibility, which occurs to me now, is that the
2sg. marker was not lenited by analogical influence from (or
by re-affixation of) the free 2sg. personal pronoun *ti.
This free form has been lost in EA, but all that's required
is that it was lost _after_ the intervocalic lenition (and
this lenition can be dated to a stage ancestral to Uralic,
Altaic and EA).
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...