Ablaut et al.

[Rory M Larson]

Let's see if we can tighten this discussion back up again.

I think we accept that there existed CVCv active verb roots in 
proto-Siouan, where the lower case v represents an unaccented vowel.  We 
seem to be finding that all, or almost all, CVCv active verb roots were 
specifically CVCe.  Some of the daughter languages have secondarily 
derived forms in which the v is some other vowel than -e, as in Omaha 
ttą́ąðį, 'run'.  But in proto-Siouan, active verb roots of the form CVCv 
were in general distinguishable from each other by the initial CVC 
sequence only, and not by the final unaccented vowel.

We have tossed out several possible hypotheses to explain this pattern:

1) The unaccented final vowel was a separate phoneme that was an integral 
part of the root.  The fact that it was always or almost always -e is 
insignificant, because some vowel had to predominate.

2) The unaccented final vowel was the schwa'ed out reduction of any of the 
eight possible vowels due to a process that affected active verb roots of 
CVCv type.  In this model, a prior position of phonemic distinctiveness 
merged together.  CVCa, CVCe, CVCi, CVCo, CVCu, CVCaN, CVCiN and CVCuN all 
collapsed into something that we reconstruct as CVCe.

3) The CVCe active verb roots were all underlyingly CVC, but received an 
epenthetic -e either as a requirement for the release of a final consonant 
or to fill out syllable structure.

4) The final -e is a separate morpheme, like Spanish -r used to mark the 
infinitives of verbs.  In this case, the root itself of these CVC-e verbs 
is composed of CVC without the -e.

I am open to hypotheses 2, 3 and 4, but I find hypothesis 1 to be 
unexplanatory.  My understanding is that Bob favors hypothesis 1 and 
rejects hypotheses 3 and 4.

Bob, is this a fair statement of what we agree on concerning this 
question, and where we differ?

Rory

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