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

[David Osgarby]

Hi Adam,

Jaminjung and Ngaliwurru (Mirndi, AU) have an 'epenthetic syllable'
(Schultze-Berndt 2000: 99) that is a reflex of a desiderative morpheme,
which '[...] is maintained only when the pronominal complex is
consonant-final, and hence would have provided a pre-existing strategy
to *adhere
to a preference for final vowels, avoiding potentially dispreferred
consonant clusters* [...]' (Osgarby 2018: 271).

Best,
David

Schultze-Berndt, Eva. 2000. Simple and Complex Verbs in Jaminjung: A Study
of Event Categorisation in an Australian Language. MPI Series in
Psycholinguistics 14. Wageningen: Ponsen & Looijen.

Osgarby, David. 2018. “Reconstructing Proto-Mirndi Verbal Morphology: From
Particles and Clitics to Prefixes.” Australian Journal of Linguistics 38
(2): 223–92. https://doi.org/10.1080/07268602.2018.1400504.

On Tue, 4 Feb 2020 at 00:11, 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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