Now that we've established that Miguel's views on /txin/ coming
from **tken are misguided and falsifiable, I still can't help but
think about Uralic conjugation.
I recently read a book published in 1965 that surveyed all of the
Uralic languages and spoke about how they related to each other
in terms of sounds correspondances and grammar. I forget the title
of the book but that doesn't matter since, while it admitted to the
fact that there are two sets of endings with differing functions
in both Hungarian and Samoyedic languages by stating that
there was one set "for the possessive" and one "derivative more or
less from the possessive", it didn't even bother in the slightest
to explain HOW one set might be derived from the other. On one
page we notice a lazy attempt to convince the reader that
Hungarian -k _might_ come from *-k-mi... but then the author fails
to explain 2ps -l. And what is the *-k??? Sufficed to say, it's
not a very good book and a little outdated.
But thinking more, I notice how *s'iNre "mouse" becomes Hungarian
/eg�r/ where *N > -g-. So, I wonder whether a 1ps *-N might not
have produced Hungarian -k. In other languages, the tendency
would be to merge the similar sounding nasal 1ps's *-N and *-m
together as *-m.
So perhaps a Boreal 1ps.subj in *-N (rather than *-G) is in order.
If so, it's interesting because a subjective set of *[-N, -n, NULL]
strangely mirrors SinoDene pronouns (*n� "I", N� "you"). (Certainly
the subjective is inherited from Steppe, but yet, I wouldn't
say no to a little areal influence and substrata.)
Hmm, then, we might set up a subjective reflexive conjugation
for some early stage of EskimoAleut (or perhaps some CKam-EA
stage):
*-m-�N > *-m�Na > *-NNa > *-Na
*-t-�n > *-t�n > *-ten > *-ten
*-a-q > *-aq > *-aq > *-aq
Yes! Why, that's perfect! I'm brillant! :P And that way, the
subjective/possessive 1ps *-�N (seperate from the reflexive)
develops into EA *-ka and the 1pp *-Net develops into EA *-kut.
Thus Boreal *N becomes EA *k.
- love gLeN
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