Stem-final consonant alternations in inflection

In the majority of lexical items, the value of the stem-final consonant in an inflectional paradigm is fixed. In addition, there are also two alternating patterns. The first pattern occurs in transitive paradigms. The second pattern is an alternation in the antipassive paradigms. I will consider each in turn.

In basic transitive paradigms that have /j/ or /ɰ/ in stem-final position it is possible to find a homorganic stop in the NF NEG form alone. This alternation is a marked feature of the Nasir dialect that has entered other varieties. Because of its origins I refer to it as the

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‘Nasir stop’ (19). The speakers are aware that this alternation is a Nasir feature and usually also offer an alternative with a glide in the NF NEG form, just as in the rest of the inflectional forms.

19. Variant Variant with without Nasir stop Nasir stop

a. lu ̤́c lu ̤́j ‘kill in secret(TR).NF NEG’

b. dʌ ̤́k dʌ ̤́ɰ ‘divorce(TR).NF NEG’

The second type of stem-final consonant alternation involves alternation between an alveolar oral stop /t/ and a lateral /l/ (20a). The lateral consonant occurs in the NF form and the alveolar oral stop elsewhere. This type of alternation can occur in the antipassive where the corresponding basic transitive has a stem-final lateral consonant (20b) (see section 8.4.4).

20. a. ɰɔ ̤́ɔ l ɰɔ ̤́t

pound(TR).AP.NF pound(TR).AP.BARE

b. ɰɔ ̤́ɔ l ɰɔ ̤́ɔ l

pound(TR).NF pound(TR).BARE

Table 70 summarises the attested alternations in stem-final consonants that occur in inflection. The Nasir stop alternation in basic transitive paradigm is optional. The

alternation in the antipassive occurs only when the corresponding basic transitive has a stem-final lateral consonant.

Table 70. Alternations in stem-final consonants in inflection.

Transitive base

(Nasir stop – optional)

j ~ c ɰ ~ k Antipassive

(where corresponding transitive base has lateral stem-final consonant)

t ~ l

Table 71 accounts for the distribution of the alternations in the paradigms. It states that the Nasir stop can occur in basic transitive paradigms and involves an alternation /j~c/ or /ɰ~k/, with the oral stops occurring in the NF NEG form and the glides elsewhere.

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The /t~l/ alternation occurs in antipassive paradigms, where the lateral alternant occurs in the NF form and the alveolar stop in the remaining forms.

Table 71. Distribution of stem-final consonant alternations in verb paradigm.

Nasir stop (TR) /t~l/ alternation (AP) 1SG j/ɰ t 2SG 3SG 1PL.EXCL 1PL.INCL 2PL 3PL BARE NF NEG c/k NF j/ɰ l

7.4 Summary

In this chapter we saw that vowel length alternations and the alternations in stem-final consonants can be once again separated out into those that occur in inflection and those that occur in derivation.

Vowel alternations in inflection can occur mostly in underived transitive verbs whilst the derivationally complex verb categories (e.g. applicative) have fixed vowel length. I have argued that vowel alternations in inflection are always in the direction of vowel lengthening. In derivation, both vowel lengthening and vowel shortening are attested. We saw that vowel length alternations are also common to other WN languages. A comparative data of vowel length alternations in inflection of Nuer, Reel, Dinka and Shilluk, the three WN languages with a three-way phonemic vowel length contrast, shows that Nuer, together with Reel, has the most alternation patterns. These are the three fixed patterns (short, long and overlong) and the three alternating patterns (short to long, long to overlong and short to overlong, though the short to overlong pattern is exceptional in Nuer).

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Alternations in stem-final consonants in inflection in Lou Nuer dialect considered in this study, are relatively rare. A number of alternations occur in the derivation. The

alternations in the derivation differ depending on the derivational category. The

behaviour of the stem-final consonant alternations in derivation indicates that the stem- final consonant must be lexically specified for the basic transitive and the derived antipassive. This issue will be dealt with in the following chapter.

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8 STEM ALTERNATIONS IN VERB INFLECTION AND

DERIVATION

8.1 Introduction

This chapter builds upon the analyses given in the previous chapters to show how all the morphophonological parameters – vowel grades (chapter 5), tone (chapter 6), vowel length and stem-final consonants (chapter 7) – come together in verb derivation and inflection. The sections of this chapter are ordered by a derivational category where the shape of inflectional paradigm for each category is presented and the regularities that occur in verb derivation are listed. Under discussion will be the shape of the basic transitive verbs as well as of the various verb categories derived from these transitive bases. I will show that the shape of the derived paradigms can be predicted if we know the phonological properties of the corresponding transitive bases, and specifically, vowel length, tone and vowel grade (section 8.3). I will also show that there are yet some other properties, which cannot be predicted from the shape of the transitive base. Such is the value of the stem-final consonant and the shape of the NF form in the

antipassive verbs.

In this chapter I first deal with the properties of the basic transitive verb (section 8.2). The following sections deal with the verb categories derived from the transitive base: antipassive in section 8.4, applicative and applicative antipassive in section 8.5, marked verbal number transitive in section 8.6, and associated motion in section 8.7. Sections 8.3 and 8.8 provide summaries of the derivational relations in paradigms with transitive bases.

In the remainder of the present section I list some key definitions and terminology presented in previous chapters for the sake of easy reference.

The system of vowel grades presented in chapter 5, is repeated here. Table 72 shows that the system consists of two cross-classifying sets – derivational grades 1 and 2, and inflectional grades A and B.

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Table 72. Morphological vowel grades, repeated from chapter 5.

Grade 1 Grade 2

Grade A Grade B Grade A Grade B

ɪ ɪɛ i i e ɛ ɛa e e - - e e a a a ʌ a - - ɔ ɔ a ɔ ɔa o o ʊ ʊɔ u u ɔ

The attested length values in the inflectional paradigms are presented in Table 73 and Table 74. In verb inflection vowel length can be either fixed (Table 73) or alternating (Table 74). The fixed length can be short (V), long (VV) or overlong (VVV). The alternating length can be short+lengthening (V~VV), long+lengthening (VV~VVV) or short to overlong (V~VVV). The former two alternations are regular. They occur in transitive verbs. The distribution of the alternants in the paradigms is as follows: longer vowel length occurs in stems inflected for the singular subject and shorter vowel length elsewhere. The short to overlong alternation is an exception. It occurs only in the

antipassive paradigms where the NF form alone can have the overlong vowel length.

Table 73. Fixed vowel length patterns in inflectional paradigms, repeated from chapter 4.

Short Long Overlong

1SG V VV VVV 2SG 3SG 1PL.EXCL 1PL.INCL 2PL 3PL BARE NF NEG NF

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Table 74. Alternating vowel length patterns in inflectional paradigms, repeated from chapter 4.

Short+lengthening Long+lengthening Short to overlong

1SG VV VVV V 2SG 3SG 1PL.EXCL V VV 1PL.INCL 2PL 3PL BARE NF NEG NF VVV

In this chapter I will be referring to the tone as it appears in the singular stems of verbs (see section 6.11). We will see that tone in singular stems can be used to predict other morphophonological properties of the verb paradigms.

The examples in this chapter show subsets of forms from the inflectional paradigms (see Table 75, below). The key forms that will be presented appear in bold in Table 75. These are the 1SG, 3PL, BARE, NF NEG and NF forms. 1SG form accounts for the

behaviour of singular inflection as all singular forms in a paradigm have the same underlying tone, vowel length and stem-final consonant. 1SG differs from 2-3SG with respect to vowel grade as discussed in section 5.3.1, above. The 3PL form serves to represent the behaviour of the plural forms, which share the same vowel length, stem- final consonant and tone. The 3PL form is important for another reason – it

distinguishes intransitive verbs (intransitive and antipassive) from the rest of the derivational categories (recall that intransitive verbs have a grade A vowel in 3PL and the rest of the categories have a grade B vowel). Special attention will be paid to the NF form which is arguably the most frequently used form within an inflectional paradigm – it occurs with all auxiliaries except for the negative present auxiliary (see chapter 4). It also happens to be the most variable form, especially in the antipassives. In this chapter I comment on the properties of the NF form separately (see sections 8.3.2 and 8.4.4). The BARE and the NF NEG forms always have a grade A vowel. They behave in a distinct way from the NF and the finite suffixed forms. For the majority of the derivational categories the BARE and the NF NEG forms are syncretic. This, however, is not always the case: for example, NF NEG and BARE can differ in the associated motion verbs (see section 8.7).

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Table 75. Forms in the inflectional paradigms of the verb ‘carry on head/back’.

TR AP 1SG 2SG 3SG 1PL.EXCL 1PL.INCL 2PL 3PL BARE NF NEG NF kāp-ʌ̤̤́ kāp-i ̤́ kāp-ɛ̤́ kà̤p-kɔ̄ kà̤p-nɛ̤́ kà̤p-ɛ̄ kàp-kɛ̤̄ káp káp káp kà̤̤p-ʌ̤̤́ kʌ̤̀ p-i ̤́ kʌ ̤̀p-ɛ̤́ ka ̤̀p-kɔ̄ ka ̤̀p-nɛ̤́ ka ̤̀p-ɛ̄ kʌ̤̤̀p-kɛ̤̄ kʌ̤̤̀p kʌ̤̤̀p káp

Here I report on data that comes mainly from a single speaker – RNM. This is because I found some between-speaker variation in stem alternations in verbs. Reporting the variation goes beyond the scope of this project. In some cases, however, observed

variation can assist in our understanding of the phenomena. In such cases I do report on the relevant data from more than one speaker. In Appendix B I briefly mention the differences that I have encountered in the speech of my two main consultants in order to give a flavour of the between-speaker variation that one might encounter.