Russian (Slavic) delocutives

[Peter Schmidt]

Dear ALT community,
this is the 'essence' of the mail I sent to Frans Plank, failing to get a
copy through to the
LINGTYP list:
Russian has a delocutive derivbation in -k-, meaning "to pronounce (with)
X", which is
predominantly used for quoting (strings of) sounds, as in

a-kat' " pronounce (with an) 'a' " (as in the designatiion of corresponding
dialects where
unaccented o is rendered as 'a', e.g.)
co-kat'  "pronounce (with) 'ts', etc.,
but also
a-kat'  "to frequently say 'a' " etc.,
and many characteristic animal sounds (miaow, twitter, squawk, ...).

This derivation is also used for quoting interjections/particles, e.g.:
as'-kat' "to (frequently) say
 'as' ' ",
besides zero-derived ox-at'  " to say 'ox' " (equivalent of German 'ach')
and the like,
thereby fulfilling at least a marginal delocutive function (type (c) in
Frans Plank's classification).

Best

Peter Schmidt