OP u- and udhu- Verbs

[Rory M Larson]

John wrote:
>On Sun, 14 Nov 2004, Rory M Larson wrote:
>> In this context, it might be worth mentioning again that our
>> speakers insist that the sequence
>>
>>   *uNk-o'-[root]
>>
>> should be pronounced
>>
>>   ugu'-[root],
>>
>> not
>>
>>   aNgu'-[root]
>
> Interesting!  No perceptible nasalization?

Alright, I'm going to have to backpedal a little bit here.
Of our two speakers, one prefers aNgu'-[root], while the
other accepts either but seems to favor ugu'-[root].
However, when ugu'-[root] is used, the initial vowel
seems to me to be clearly [u], with no perceptible
nasalization.

Perhaps this is just a bleeding of the accented second
syllable vowel into the unaccented first syllable, as
seems to happen in several similar morphological situations:

  *u-aN'-[root]  =>  aNwaN'-[root]

  *u-iN'-[root]  =>  iNwiN'-[root]

  *i-o'-[root]   =>  udhu'-[root]

  *i-aN'-[root]  =>  aNdhaN'-[root]

In these cases, the original first vowel is marked by
its consonantal epenthesis (u- => @w-; i- => @dh-), but
was originally in [vowel] + [vowel] position.  But for
*uNk-u'-[root] => aNgu'-[root] => ugu'-[root], the vowel
leveling has to jump a stop consonant.

Rory