Stems

In SIN, reduplication was used to mark some grammatical categories. The effect of that is, that inflected words of medzor have 4 different stems (which were formed regularly during the evolution but seem quite irregular most of the time now) and the use of a stem carries a morphological meaning (i.e., grammatical categories are encoded in it). The stems are called:

• basic stem (BS)

• plural stem (PS)

• highlighted stem (HS) and

• highlighted plural stem (HPS)

The plural and the highlighted stems add a thematic vowel to the form of the word, which usually isn’t there in the basic stem. The thematic vowel was part of the stem in SIN and distinguished meanings in words. In modern medzor it is a mere grammatical feature.

Please note that due to the morphophonological processes which took place during the history of the language, it is not always possible to derive to all the stems from one of the others, even if the thematic vowel is known. However, the derivation from SIN is always unique.

There is a tool for stem derivation on this site.

Basic stem

The basic stem evolved from the original stem without any reduplication taking place. In PM the vowel of the second syllable of the word turned into a schwa, which then disappeared during The Great Shift. If the two consonants surrounding the second syllable were easy enough to pronounce (or merged/assimilated), the word remained monosyllabic. Otherwise, a schwa was added at the end of the word, which was then fronted to e/ö (ö is used if the stem has a rounded vowel).

The basic stem has the form BACDe/ö, where B, C, D are consonants and A is a vowel.

• The B and D consonants may be missing.

• If CD is an allowed consonant cluster, then the e/ö is omitted.

• If the first vowel is long, then the C consonants can be understood to be “m” or an “n”.

Examples:

• žebze (illnes) from SIN *gjäbadj

• chifte (sky) from SIN *hjebjät

• nuhme (fire) from SIN *nuhom

• čern (book) from SIN *keran

• reň (city) from SIN *regen

• reň (grass) from SIN *renek

• sevre (country) from SIN *tjäbjer

• püc (house) from SIN *putetj

• edz (beautiful) from SIN *edatj

• vâre (read) from SIN *bjaaner

• zegde (pain) from SIN *djäged

• žel (sun) from SIN *gjärjaa

• mäcö (hammer) from SIN *matjät

• nežg (hunger) from SIN *negjaag

• müchsö (destroy) from SIN *muhetj

• maš (bear) from SIN *makjätj

• tirk (peak) from SIN *tirik

Plural stem

The plural stem evolved from the original SIN stem with reduplicated second syllable. If the second syllable was closed, then the coda of the syllable in the root was dropped and only reserved at the very end of the word (this was the phonotactical repair strategy of SIN). The plural was generally used to express the plural on nouns, verbs, and adjectives, and still carries this grammatical meaning, hence the name.

• *gjäratj – dragon > *gjäraratj – dragons

• *akjä – amimal > *akjäkjä – animals

• *objaar – fly (sg.) > *objaabjaar – fly (pl.)

Later, the unstressed second syllable was reduced (the second vowel turned to schwa) and during The Great Shift disappeared altogether. This caused the original basic form of the word to resurface for disyllabic words, but this time as the plural form:

• SIN *gjäratj → *žeryras → žeras

For monosyllabic words, the form evolved differently:

• *dar → *dadyr → dadre

The regular plural stem in MM is formed from the basic stem by inserting the thematic vowel into the consonant cluster in the basic stem and deleting the ending e/ö: BACVD, where V is the thematic vowel.

• žebze → žebaz,

• šerle → šerol

• sevre → sevir

• kozve → kozaw (v → w after a)

Highlighted stem

The highlighted stem evolved from the SIN-stem with the main vowel of the root prefixed. This is believed to have evolved in the following way:

The Sinal people began to use reduplication of the second syllable of a word to create plurals, and reduplication of the first syllable to form the intensive, highlighted form. This, however, caused problems with monosyllabic words, as for these the plural and the highlighted form were the same. To differentiate them, the speakers of EPM dropped the onset of the reduplicated first syllable. In other words, the highlighted form for monosyllabic words was formed only by prefixing the stem vowel. This spread by analogy also to polysyllabic words – the first consonant was not necessary, as it was preserved in the root itself.

• *mak → *mamak → *amak

• *sevir → *esevir

If a word began with a vowel, then it got prolonged – this turned the vowel length phonemic in SIN and explains why the long vowels only appeared at the beginning of a word there. The highlighted stem was used to reinforce the meaning of the word and later evolved into the categories of definitness (nouns), grade (adjectives) and aspect (verbs).

• *žerys – dragon > *ežyras – the dragon

• *äšy – animals > *ääšy > *âšy – the animal

Later, the dropping of schwas caused a contact between the first and the second consonant of the original word, which then lead to fusions, assimilations or intervocalic consonant clusters.

• *mak → *amak → aň

• *resiv → *eresiv → eří

The regular highlighted stem in MM is formed from the plural stem by switching the consonant and the vowel in the first syllable, i.e. ABCVD.

Examples:

• žebze → PS žebaz → HS ežbaz

• šerle → PS šerol → HS ešrol

• sevre → PS sevir → HS ezvir (s → z, because of the following v-sound)

• kozve → PS kozaw → HS ogzaw (k → g, because of the following z-sound)

Words which begin with a vowel form the highlighted stem from the basic stem by prolonging the first vowel (if it’s already long, then HS = BS):

• ekpe (from PM *ekap) → ékpe

• ék → ék

Highlighted plural stem

The highlighted plural stem formed from the SIN stem with both the strategies for plural and highlighted stem applied. The form was used to mark both the plural and the reinforcement at the same time. HPS in SIN usually had four syllables, and in PM the second and the fourth one were reduced. If the HPS had three syllables, than only the second one was reduced. Then fusions and assimilations happened.

Due to the fact, that in the highlighted stem, the middle consonant of a disyllabic word appeared on both sides of the thematic vowel, speakers of EPM were inclined to push them further apart to make pronounciation easier. This resulted in a metathesis in the last syllable of the highlighted plural stems, i.e. the two consonants around the last syllable switched places:

• SIN *gjäratj → *ežeraras → *ežyrasyr→ ežrahre

• *resit → *eresisit → *erysitys → eřic

This didn’t affect monosyllabic words:

• *mak → *amamak → amak

and words without a coda in the second syllable:

• *akjä → *âšyše → âše

The regular HPS in MM has the form ABCVDC(e), i.e. it is formed by inserting the middle consonant after the HS and adding an e. If the final CD is a legal consonant cluster or another vowel in the same word follows, then the second e doesn’t appear (the e originates from a schwa which broke the illegal cluster – and then fronted to e).

• žebze → ežbasp

• sevir → ezvirf

Words which begin with a vowel form the highlighted plural stem differently – by prolonging the first vowel in the plural stem.

• aš → PS aše → HPS áše

Adding suffixes/endings to BS and HPS

The basic stem and highlighted plural stem often end in a fronted schwa – e or ö (after rounded vowels). This e/ö can have two origins:

1. it can be a fronted schwa, added there to break an illegal consonant cluster

2. it can be the thematic vowel of a word, which did not have a coda in the second syllable (these are the words which ended with an e in their SIN basic form).

When adding suffixes to the stem, the e/ö coming from the schwa is dropped, when it doesn’t cause the formation of an illegal consonant cluster (note the syllable end can shift to allow for consonant clusters). Otherwise, the e/ö is preserved. If the e/ö wasn’t there but adding a suffix forms an illegal consonant cluster, then it is is added. If a suffix in this case begins with a vowel, the vowel is preserved.

• žeř → HPS ežrazre, adding the suffix -á results in ežrazrá

The full e/ö which had been part of the root, overrides the first vowel of a suffix:

• äk → HPS âdže, adding the suffix -at results in âdžet

Explanation for this nehavior is that the suffixes were added before the repairing schwa was inserted. The original repair strategy (deletion of second vowel in a hiatus) was in effect. Later, after the reduction of unstressed vowels and deletion of schwas, where illegal clusters remained, a schwa was re-introduced. This later turned to e/ö.

In the above examples:

• žeř - in EPM the HPS was *ežyrasyr. The suffix in Protomedzor was a postposition an. There were two forms, with and without the postposition:

  • *ežyrasyr → *ežrazry → MM ežrazre

  • *ežyrasyr an → *ežrazran → MM ežrazrá

• äk - the HPS in EPM was *âgyge

  • *âgyge → *âge (the second syllable was reduced) → MM âdže

  • *âgyge at → *ágyget (the e ate the a) → MM âdžet.

Irregularities in stem formation

The evolution of the medzor language gave rise to many irregularities in the stem formation. These can all be traced back to the original SIN word and explained by the sound changes which took place. They include (the list is not exhaustive):

Voicing or devoicing

Consonants may gain or lose voicing in the DC position:

• chifte → PS chivet

• nežg → PS nešag

Denasalization

If the third consonant in the basic form is a nasal (n or m), then the thematic vowel is long

• čern → PS čerá HS egrá HPS egráre

If the first consonant of the basic form is a nasal, the first vowel of the root is prolonged:

• nuhme → PS núho HS úho HPS úhoch

Nasalization

If the first vowel of the basic stem is long, it usually dissolves into a nasal:

• kú → PS kuma, HS ungma, HPS ungmá

• vâre → PS väner, HS awner, HPS awnern

Dissolution of ň

An ň usually dissolves into a nasal and a velar in some forms:

• reň (from PM *renyk) → PS renek, HS ernek, HPS erneň

• eň → PS emak, HS éň, HPS éngá

Before front vowels, the velar palatalises, the nasal after vowels dissapears and causes lengthtening:

• reň (from PM *regyn) → PS redžé, HS erdžé, HPS erdžeň

Dissolution of affricates

Affricates usually dissolve to their components based on the older word forms:

• püc → PS pütös, HS uftös, HPS uftöc

• mac → PS maset, HS áset, HPS ásec

Other dissolutions

Other dissolutions are possible.

Palatalization

If in the formation of a stem the consonants g, k, ch or h are followed by a front vowel, they palatalize to dž, č, š and ž:

• zekte (from PM zeget) → PS zedžet (in *zeddžet the two d merged), HS edžet, HPS edžedže

Depalatalization

A č, š, dž or ž may depalatalize in some cases:

• čern → PS čerá, HS egrá, HPS egráre

Irregular monosyllabic stems

Monosyllabic stems where no dissolution takes place form the plural stem simply by adding the stem vowel:

• žel → PM žela, HS ežla, HPS ežlal

Other fusions and deletions

Other fusions and deletions are possible:

• müchsö → PS müžös, HS úžös, HPS úžöžö

.