phonology 29

we find perfects of the shape həCCāG (e.g., həbā) or həCCēG (e.g.,

həndēx) (see §7.2.8).
Because G-Stem verbs with a final guttural undergo this change
CəCūG > CūCəG, they wind up looking identical to D-Stem verbs in
the 3ms perfect. As a result, these verbs are sometimes conjugated as if
they were D-Stems. For example, from the verb lūtəġ ‘kill’, we find
both a G-Stem 3mp əwtawġ (< *lətawġ) and a D-Stem 3mp lətġəm
‘they killed’.

2.2.3. The Effects of Liquids on Vowels

In several places, we find that the changes of ū > aw and ī > ay, which
regularly occur following glottalics and certain gutturals, also take
place following the liquids r or l. In such cases, there is normally a glot-
talic or guttural consonant elsewhere in the root. Some examples are
the verbs həźrawb ‘be ill’, rayźi ‘to be acceptable’, and həlaw ‘release’;
the past participles məġrayb ‘well-known’ and məlawtəġ ‘killed (mp)’
(< *məlūtəġ < *məltūġ); and the nouns ərawš ‘money’ (plural pattern
CəCūC) and śərayr ‘rag, strip of cloth’. We also find the change of ū >
aw in the environment of two liquids, as in the 3fs perfect form fərrawt
‘she flew’ and the 3ms perfect əśtəlawl ‘wander aimlessly’.13
One possible example in which the word has no glottalic or gut-
tural is the verb śərawg ‘sew’. In the texts, this verb occurs only in the
3mp perfect, śərawg (20:28), where we expect aw. In the ML (p. 383)
the form śərawg is given also as the 3ms perfect (for expected śərūg),
but this may be an error; in the English-Mehri word-list at the back
of the ML (p. 588), the verb ‘sew up’ is listed as śərōg.

2.3. Word Stress

Most words only have one long vowel or diphthong, in which case the
stress falls on the long vowel or diphthong. Johnstone claims in both
the ML (p. xiii) and AAL (p. 10) that long vowels (including diph-
thongs) can only occur in open stressed syllables or in stressed, word-
final syllables ending with a single consonant. If this statement is
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correct, then one must add, as Johnstone does, that a word can have
more than one stressed syllable. So, for example, Johnstone would
have to say that in words like ʾāmōr ‘he said’ and ʾāmərūt ‘she said’ the

13
There is some inconsistency with these T2-Stems. For example from the root frr,
the ML has in one place the form əftərūr (p. lv), and elsewhere əftərawr (p. 97).

Rubin, Aaron. Mehri Language of Oman, BRILL, 2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uic/detail.action?docID=1079746.
Created from uic on 2021-05-04 13:57:25.