Talk:pǫ̀ʼóne

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This form appears in (Trager 1936: 204) as < pˌǫʔˈone > (= pǫ̀’óne) with the gloss "earth". (Trager 1936: 216) has the form < pǫ̀-ʔˈona > (= pǫ̏’óna) marked as gender/declension/subdivision III.5gg with gloss "land, country, the earth". The pǫ̏’óna form is singular and the III.5gg duoplural form would be < pǫ̀-ʔˈone > (= pǫ̏’óne) and glossed obviously as "lands, countries" (presumably a gloss of "the earths" would pragmatically strange).

Fact: a few words have III.5 singular-duoplural pairs and additionally a III.6 indeclinable form. Although Trager is only analyzing this in terms of morphological patterns, it seems to be a semantic distinction between a pair of count III.5 nouns and a corresponding noncount III.6 noun (and a quick check over all III.6 easily shows this). For example, "raindrop"-"raindrops" and "rain". Formally, the duoplural count form is identical to the noncount form: both are of the the form STEM- + -ne. (although the noun forms are the same, the verb agree is distinct.)

Given the above, one wonders two things:

(1) Is the form pǫ̀’óne on p. 204 the noncount member of this lexical set? (Trager doesn't state the gender/declension of this form.)

(2) Could this spelling be erroneous (as there is a tonal permutation)? The other lexical sets do not have this difference in tone.

Trager's unpublished notes will need to be consulted or further fieldwork is needed. Ishwar 07:07, 31 October 2008 (UTC)