<HTML><BODY STYLE="font:10pt verdana; border:none;"><DIV>According to my dictionary, to verb is "lighten" which I guess means the correct verb form is "It is lightening"--referring perhaps to the sky being lit up by a flash. But I too have always found this lightning/lightening thing confusing in English. This is one of those situations in English when I wish our grammar were more like many Native languages: "lightning" or "lightening" (with no subject) which gets the point across with no need to distinguish noun or verb!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>-Dave</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt Arial">----- Original Message -----</DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; COLOR: black; FONT: 10pt Arial"><B>From:</B> R. Rankin</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt Arial"><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, January 12, 2003 7:39 AM</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt Arial"><B>To:</B> siouan@lists.colorado.edu</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt Arial"><B>Subject:</B> A little more haplology.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV>To see what you yourself do about haplological (?) situations, figure out what you do with the noun/verb 'lightning' in English. Consider:<BR><BR>thunder<BR>to thunder<BR>It is thundering outside.<BR><BR>lightning<BR>to lightning<BR>It is __________ outside.<BR><BR>I've always choked on "lightninging" but said it when occasion arose. Some of my students say "It is lightning outside" invoking haplology. A few alter the stem to "lighten" and say "It is lightening outside". My wife won't say it at all.<BR><BR>Of course "thipipi" may be easier to say. And I think the "Merry Christmas" term, literally "happy pickings", has two "pi" syllables in a row. Not to mention the fact that the phenomenon of reduplication out to desensitize Dakotan speakers to haplology.<BR><BR>Bob<BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>