Thread:User talk:CodeCat/Proto-Finnic k-stems/reply (3)

I guess that's the problem then. The module currently doesn't distinguish between consonant and e-stems, nor does it really consider the number of syllables. Of course that's partly a matter of practicality; these all fell together in Finnic for the most part due to syncope and apocope.

There are some trisyllabic stems that we know used to be e-stems, though. These are the ones that show assibilation of -t > -c in the nominative singular, like the ordinal numbers and the words of the Finnish type. These contrast with and  which have no assibilation and thus were presumably true consonant stems.

The module itself tells these apart through the parameter given to it: if it includes the final -e as part of the stem or not. If it's included, it's syncopated/apocopated by the module in the appropriate places, but triggers assibilation beforehand. If it's not included, epenthetic -e- is added in the appropriate places, but there is no apocope and therefore no assibilation. This behaviour can presumably be used for k-stems: it can be made so that -kt- does not get epenthesized to -ket- in the partitive, but -ket- does not get syncopated to -kt- either. That way, the correct partitive is used for the consonantal k-stems and also for the two-syllable e-stems like ; these simply have stems in -k- and -ke- respectively.

The two exceptional verbs are treated as an exception in the module: if the stem equals näke- or teke-, then syncopate -ket- to -kt-. This rule seems to work, but it does beg the larger question of why this happened in Finnic in the first place, while other stems like make- were unaffected.