I've just restructured the Boreal vowel system and discovered
more about its consonant inventory:

*i *u
*�
*a

Essentially, a hybrid of ProtoSteppe's vowel system of *[i, u, a]
combined with influences from neighbouring IndoTyrrhenian's vowel
system of *[�, a].

Only primary vowels *[i, u, a] could occur on the first syllable
and secondary vowels *[�, a] occur on all the other unstressed
syllables. These vocalism constraints are still seen in Uralic.
Therefore I must modify my Boreal conjugational endings as
follows:

subj. obj/poss.sg. poss.pl.
========================================================
1s -G -m -t-am
2s -n -t -t-at
3s -0 -sa -i-sa

1p -G-�t -m-at -t-am-at
2p -n-�t -t-at -t-at-at
3p -t -sa-t -i-sa-t


It's clear that the possessive markers are formed from the
objective markers (which were statistically more common in
usage anyways).

The reason for the oscillation between -i- and -t- is caused
by Boreal's avoidance of two consecutive consonants in medial
position. Since the 3ps is *-sa, **-t-sa could not be allowed.
So the vocalic pronominal plural came to be used instead as
a way to solve this problem.


Miguel:

>I'm following Seefloth here, who reconstructs *-Na < *-m + -ka,
>on the basis of the 1sg pl. object form -n-ka < *-t-m-ka (pl.obj
>- 1 subj 2x).

As I say, Aleut has /-N/ without the final vowel and I don't
remember there being any velar nasals in final position in
Inuktitut, strongly suggesting that the language has come to
avoid this. Hence PEA *-N > PE *-Na and PA *-N. It's quite simple.

As for /-n-ka/, rather than inventing some imaginative and
unnecessary *-ka suffix, the following seems to be far more logical:

Boreal *-t-�m (plural + 1ps)

> PEA *-t-�N (*-m > *-N)
> PEY *-t-�Na (avoidance of final *-N)
> *-n-Na (nasal assimilation)
> *-n-ka (hardening of velar nasal)

However 1pp subj *-kut is from *-G�t

>The *-i- is the plural object marker.

In Steppe, it is the _pronominal_ plural. The suffix *-it was
used for nouns and is more common as a plural suffix in Steppe
languages (IE *-es, Tyr *-r, Alt. *-r, Uralic *-t, EA *-t).
In verbs, *-i is the Steppe 3ps transitive marker. The 3ps
suffix *-sa is only seen in Boreal because it has been added
later.

>>Lastly, the Boreal reflex of Steppe *-ux is *-u and _is_ attested
>>in Uralic.
>
>Where?

Again, I have modified this suffix to *-�G...

It is found in Samoyedic (Nenets -v) and EskimoAleut (Inuk. -gut
"we" < *-�G�t). And plus, one has to wonder where Hungarian -k
came from. So far, no one seems to offer any account for these
"extra" endings in the Uralic system. The best explanation
people seem to have to offer is the Tower of Babel. It's not
good enough.

Explain why Hungarian has 1ps -k in contrast with -m. Explain
why Nenets has 2ps -n as opposed to 2ps -r. Explain for what
purpose each and every language in Uralic and beyond shows the
SAME phonemic contrasts. Finally, explain how such contrasts can
survive for thousands of years in each branch without having
any differing morphological function, Miguel!

And you can't simply say that Nenets -v < *-m without backing that
up with evidence elsewhere showing this change truely took place.
The fact that *-m- and *-w- alternate in IndoTyrrhenian
pronominal endings and in the rest of Boreal makes it terribly
unlikely that what you say can possibly be true. Your view ignores
all the facts.

>That's Tundra-Nenets -w, -m'i, Forest-Nenets -m, -j, from
>Proto-Samoyed *-mV (see Sinor et al. "The Uralic Languages":
>Tibor Mikola "Geschichte der Samojedischen Sprachen", p. 241).

Forest-Nenets -j is from *-mV??? You're funny.

And so, these languages just developed subjective/objective
conjugation with a plurality of endings (*m/*w, *n/*t, etc)
just out of the blue for no reason at all?? Let's be serious.
Even Hungarian has a distinctive set for both its definite and
indefinite conjugation (-m/-t versus -k/-l). There's too much
phonemic oscillation in all these languages that begs deeper
explanation. We MUST reconstruct a subjective-objective system
in Uralic with different sets of endings to account for all this.
There's no getting around it.

- love gLeN



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