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A grammar of Pite Saami, 2014

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8 Verbs<br />

Table 8.7: Consonant gradation patterns for verbs, with 3sg.prs and 2sg.prs example<br />

pairs<br />

strong ‐ weak 3sg.prs 2sg.prs<br />

ʰx ‐ x /pɔʰta/ ‐ /pɔta/ ‘come’<br />

båhta båda<br />

xː ‐ x /paːlːa/ ‐ /paːla/ ‘dig’<br />

bálla bála<br />

/maːʰtːa/ ‐ /maːʰta/ ‘be able to’<br />

máhtta máhta<br />

xːy ‐ xy /parːka/ ‐ /parka/ ‘work’<br />

barrga barga<br />

xy ‐ y /atnaː/ ‐ /anaː/ ‘have’<br />

adná aná<br />

xyz ‐ xz /ʧaːjpma/ ‐ /ʧaːjma/ ‘laugh’<br />

tjájbma tjájma<br />

8.4.2.1 Vowel harmony patterns for verbs<br />

Vowel harmony in verb forms refers to a regressive assimilation <strong>of</strong> place <strong>of</strong> articulation<br />

between the two vowels <strong>of</strong> the final foot in a word. Specifically the<br />

raising <strong>of</strong> the vowel in V1 position triggered by the presence in specific, classdependent<br />

paradigmatic slots <strong>of</strong> a close-mid /e/ (orthographic e) or a close front<br />

/i/ (orthographic i) vowel in V2 position. There are six attested vowel harmony<br />

patterns in the V1 vowel <strong>of</strong> a verb stem from Class II or Class III, as illustrated<br />

by Table 8.8 on the facing page.<br />

The data from the corpus indicate that Class I and Class IV verbs do not exhibit<br />

vowel harmony, but there are no tokens <strong>of</strong> Class I or Class IV verbs with one <strong>of</strong><br />

the vowels listed in Table 8.8 on the next page in V1 position. Consequently, the<br />

data must be considered inconclusive in this respect. On the other hand, it is<br />

quite evident that Class V verbs are not affected by vowel harmony because the<br />

V2 vowel in Class V verbs is never subject to the allomorphic alternations which<br />

trigger vowel harmony in the V1 vowel.<br />

It is not clear why á and a have different vowel harmony alternations (i/ä<br />

and i/e, respectively, as illustrated by the first four examples in Table 8.8); these<br />

alternation patterns do not align with verb classes. Further research is needed to<br />

come to a better understanding <strong>of</strong> this vowel harmony.<br />

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