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2. MORPHOPHONEMICS
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Morphophonemic rules account for the phonologically conditioned
positional variants of morphemes. They are context sensitive and
ordered. The morphophonemic rules of Karbi are presented below.
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1) If a
morpheme ending a voiceless stop is added to a morpheme
beginning with a voiced consonant or a vowel, then the voiceless
stop becomes voiced.
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dop-ni |
è |
dobni ‘two small boxes’
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|
dop-thom
|
è |
dopthom
‘three small boxes’
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| kitap pak-ni |
è |
kitap pagni
‘two books’ |
va ?et-lo |
è |
va?edlo
‘has come’ |
| varuk-lo |
è |
varuglo
‘(sub) (Pl.) came’
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| ap-non |
è |
abnon
‘(you) shoot’ |
| ap-ri |
è |
abri
‘dont’t shoot’
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This rule is
applicable across word boundary
also but in this case the voicing is optional.
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| lek ijir |
è |
leg ijir ~ lek ijir
‘a small necklace’
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| lek jirni |
è |
leg jirni ~ lek jirni
‘two small necklaces’
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| nuk ichi |
è |
nug ichi ~ nuk ichi
‘one horn’
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| |
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2) If the
final consonant of the preceding morpheme and the first
consonant of the following morpheme and the first consonant of
the following morpheme are identical, one of the identical
consonants is optionally dropped.
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| vaver-ri |
è |
vaverri
~ vaveri
‘don’t come
always’
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| arjap-po |
è |
arjappo ~ arjapo
‘will
stand’
|
| dam?et-tahay |
è |
dam?ettahay ~ dam?etahay
‘may have not gone’
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Two rules
apply to the following example. First, the voicing rule (Rule 1
) operates and then the optional dropping rule (Rule 2).
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| ap-bomlo |
è |
ab-bomlo
‘be shooting’
|
| ab-bomlo |
è |
abbomolo ~ abomlo
‘be
shooting’
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3) When a
morpheme beginning with the vowel a is added to a
morpheme ending in the vowel e, there occurs a glide y
optionally in between
the two vowels.
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