A Priori Ablaut
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How to make naturalistic ablaut without diachronics
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 23 Dec 2014, 14:50.
[comments] ablaut Quite simply, ablaut means vowels alternate for certain morphological categories. The choice of 'grade' that each category takes is completely arbitrary, and is usually motivated by an oposition between two or more related categories, such as singular versus plural, or direct cases versus oblique cases. It should also be said that words do not have their own 'lexical default' grade. So, if my productive ablaut system consisted of ə~a~ā, you wouldn't find a stem of the shape CaC- and CāC- in the same morphological category. Do note that there can still be irregular words, but these are the exception, not the rule.
A productive ablaut system usually consists of one or more paradigms, which are lexically assigned to words, sometimes based on phonological considerations, for completely arbitrary reasons, or because of the vowel the root gets from its ablaut system (which is very circular, but is how the system would be viewed synchronically). Vedic Sanskrit is a good example of a one-paradigm system. Consider the hypothetical root mṛk-. The citation form is the zero-grade (lack of a vowel), which causes the sonorant in the middle of the root to vocalise. This has a full-grade (contains a full vowel) form mark-, and a lengthened-grade (containing a long vowel) form mārk-. Roots with semi-vowels behave similarly: (hypothetical) muk- ~ mok- (Sanskrit /o/ is historically a diphthong /au/) ~ mauk- (Sanskrit /au/ is historically a long diphthong /āu/). All roots behave in this manner. I would provide examples of how these grades are used in Sanskrit morphology, but I know very little in that regard.
A good example of a language with multiple paradigms is Proto-Germanic. It should be stressed, however, that the paradigms are still superficially similar to each other. The strong verb paradigm is the only place where ablaut is regularly retained in Proto-Germanic, and is most visible in the principle parts of the verb (infinitive, past 3s, past 3p, past participle). I'll illustrate the ablaut paradigms with some representative verbs of each, including some minority or irregular presents.
"bite": bītaną, bait, bitun, bitanaz (1st class)
"dig": diganą, daig, digun, diganaz (1st class minority)
"pour": geutaną, gaut, gutun, gutanaz (2nd class)
"look": lūkaną, lauk, lukun, lukanaz (2nd class irr.)
"drink": drinkaną, drank, drunkun, drunkanaz (3rd class, nasal subclass)
"help": helpaną, halp, hulpun, hulpanaz (3rd class, non-nasal subclass)
"bear": beraną, bar, bērun, buranaz (4th class)
"give": gebaną, gab, gēbun, gebanaz (5th class)
"sit": sitjaną, sat, sētun, setanaz (5th class j-present)
"wade": wadaną, wōd, wōdun, wadanaz (6th class)
"swear": swarjaną, swōr, swōrun, swaranaz (6th class j-present)
"let": lētaną, lelōt, lelōtun, lētanaz (7th class)
The 7th class is unified only by the reduplicated past - many verbs don't ablaut. The 6th class contains all strong verbs with a root-internal /a/, and their ablaut is somewhat defective compared to the other classes. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd classes are essentially identical, with a-grade in the past 3s, and zero-grade in the past 3p and past participle (the u-grade of the third class is a functional zero-grade, as the PIE syllabic sonorants acquired an epenthetic /u/ - this separates the 3rd class from the first two); while the infinitives all reflect a historical e-grade (except for the zero-grade 1st class presents and the irregular 2nd class verb), the /e/ has been raised to /i/ by two separate diachronic processes. The ē-grade past 3p of the 4th and 5th classes is something of an anomaly, and almost certainly analogical, probably on etaną, êt, ētun, etanaz (the 'trimoric' vowel in the 3s is regular of vowel-initial verbs) where it is the regular sound-change outcome. The e-grade past participle of the 5th class features the functional zero-grade between obstruents. In the 5th class j-presents, the /e/ is again raised to /i/. It should be fairly clear that the first 5 classes all have a basic, fundamental ablaut of e ~ a ~ Ø ~ Ø, where the zero-grades are generally resolved in ways specific to the stem type, and the paradigm is further altered by other factors.
In light of that, it should be clear how to produce naturalistic a priori ablaut. To begin with, decide on the basic ablaut grades, then decide how they interact with the various possible root structures. This will determine the number and nature of your paradigm(s).
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