Subject marking interrupted: Perturbations from the development of Northern Mao’s future tense suffix
Northern Mao, an Omotic-Mao language of Ethiopia, exhibits three partially overlapping but distinct subject-marking paradigms in its verbal system: subject prefixes on realis verbs which correspond closely to free pronouns, subject suffixes on irrealis negative non-future verbs which exhibit regular...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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LibraryPress@UF
2014-06-01
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| Series: | Studies in African Linguistics |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.flvc.org/sal/article/view/107264 |
| Summary: | Northern Mao, an Omotic-Mao language of Ethiopia, exhibits three partially overlapping but distinct subject-marking paradigms in its verbal system: subject prefixes on realis verbs which correspond closely to free pronouns, subject suffixes on irrealis negative non-future verbs which exhibit regular changes from the realis prefixes, and a third, more divergent, subject suffix system on irrealis future verbs which exhibits an [m] form not attested as a person marker elsewhere in the language or extended family. It is argued (from internal evidence) that the irrealis future verbs developed from a periphrastic subordinate + final verb complexes and that the intrusive [m] was, at an earlier stage, part of a subordinating morpheme. |
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| ISSN: | 0039-3533 2154-428X |