[Lingtyp] morpheme -> empty morph -> epenthetic formative?

[Gilles Authier]

Hi Adam,

East Caucasian (aka Nakh-Daghestanian) language inflect nouns from a so
called "oblique stem" which often but not always corresponds to the
ergative case (or , in Kryz only, to the genitive). Very often also this
stem has lost any autonomy synchronically. The situation varies enormously
across languages and branches. Avar language is famous for its variety of
stem formations, including apophony.
The only overview I am aware of was a presentation by late A. E. Kibrik at
IMM in Vienna ten years ago, but it was a powerpoint and not published
afterwards. Maybe his disciples have some copy of it, or maybe Johanna
Nichols (cc) does. Among his findings, I remember that he cited Khinalug, a
single-language-branch which probably emerged as a mixed language, had lost
oblique stems altogether, suggesting that this "useless" (morphomic ?) type
of morphology is difficult in language acquisition.

GA


On Mon, Feb 3, 2020 at 2:10 PM TALLMAN Adam <Adam.TALLMAN at cnrs.fr> wrote:

> Hey everyone,
>
> I'm asking if anyone has described or found likely cases where some
> epenthetic segment(s) has/have been exapted from previously meaningful
> morphology.
>
> So think of a morpheme that once meant something, becomes semantically
> bleached, but then acquires a function as an epenthetic element to meet
> minimality conditions or to avoid vowel hiatus or something else.
>
> I understand (from wikipedia) that /t/ in French interrogatives comes from
> habet and could be an example of this and the insertion of /n/ in English
> after 'a' determiner #vowel  is also an example. I'm wondering about more
> sources on diachronic processes like these. Also any good sources on the
> French and English processes would also be helpful.
>
> best,
>
> Adam
>
>
>
>
>
> Adam James Ross Tallman (PhD, UT Austin)
> ELDP-SOAS -- Postdoctorant
> CNRS -- Dynamique Du Langage (UMR 5596)
> Bureau 207, 14 av. Berthelot, Lyon (07)
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