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Share Paper 2740

Morphophonological Properties of Moro Causatives
Andrew Strabone and Sharon Rose
92-103 (complete paper or proceedings contents)

Abstract

This paper describes and analyzes the morphophonological properties of the causative construction in the Thetogovela dialect of Moro, a Kordofanian language spoken in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan. The causative morpheme, -i, triggers vowel height harmony and palatalization of preceding dental stops. Unlike other extension affixes, it also fuses with the final aspect/mood vowel. Finally, while default tone is normally dependent on the size and shape of the root, the causative imposes a high-low pattern: high tone on the root/stem and a low-toned causative affix. We demonstrate how these processes relate to the causative morpheme's position within the derived stem, a constituent composed of the root, a reduplicative prefix, and extension suffixes, including the causative.

Published in

Selected Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference on African Linguistics: African Languages in Contact
edited by Bruce Connell and Nicholas Rolle
Table of contents
Printed edition: $280.00