Crow Citation Forms (Re: WINN TERM "FRENCH")

[Hu Matthews]

The rule is that unaccented a is raised to i when it
follows a palatal consonant

Isch[i]wúuan < ischi+awuú#n = in His hands
the i, a morpheme-final lax vowel, is deleted before a
vowel
unaccented a following a palatal consonant is raised to i
bach[i]wúualuuk < bach+awuú#luu+k = they are inside each other
háchkite < háchka+ta
(the k is palatal following the palatal ch)
For me the puzzle is the a in háchkak


Another rule is that a is raised to i before i, but I really don't know
enough examples of this to be confident.

shikáakkaatiihmaachik < shikáaka+káata+ihmaachi+k = it will be a boy
baaleetiihmaachik = it will be nothing

The plural future is more difficult!
hilíatiohmaachik = they will be these


It's not useful to think of the diphthongs ia and ua as sequences of two
vowels. The a in diphthongs doesn't behave like other a's.

bachí[e]hmaachik < bachía+ihmaachik = he will fight

Final vowels are short, including the mid-vowels; the spelling of citation
forms are spelling conventions. Also iia and uua are phonetically the same
as ia and ua.