Matthews, G. H.

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XIX. LINGUISTICSProf. R. Jakobson Prof. M. Halle Dr. G. H. MatthewsProf. A. N. Chomsky Dr. R. H. Abernathy R. J. ParikhA. MORPHOPHONEMIC CHANGE IN CROW AND HIDATSAFor the protolanguage of Crow and Hidatsa (1), the following three phonetic rules,from among others, are reconstructed. The phonetic rules of a language are orderedrules that indicate how sequences of phonemic, morphophonemic, and junctural symbolsare phonetically interpreted (2).P1. eo a -- aaThis rule states that if a nondiffuse vowel - that is, e, o or a - is immediatelyfollowed by the vowel, short a, the nondiffuse vowel becomes a and the original ais lost. By this rule forms like hathaaci, kunveaci, and pheaci become hathaci,+ /kunvaci, and phaci.+ uP2. vV VI ?V1  V1 ?V 1This rule states that the morphophoneme v is replaced by a vowel that is accented, short,and in all other respects just like the vowel that follows it; and a glottal stop is placed+ + +-between these two vowels. By this rule forms like kvuaci, kunvaci, and uva becomeku ?uaci, kuna?aci, and ua?a.P3. ua -- uIf a short a immediately follows the vowel u, the a becomes u and the original u islost. By this rule forms like ku?uaci, and ua?aci become ku?uci and u ?aci.Observe the following protolanguage forms that are made up of the verb stems/ + + / +h7tha (break), kvu (give), kunve (carry), phe (eat), pvo (blow), and uva (climb), thenoun stem pvoki (feather), and the suffixes aci, which indicates that the action is likethat denoted by the preceding verb stem, and i, which indicates that the action denotedby the preceding verb stem is done repeatedly. These forms are arranged in threepairs of columns; the form of the first of each pair is in the phonemic representation -that is, the form that it has before the application of the phonetic rules - and the formof the second of each pair is its form after the application of the three phoneticrules P1, P2, and P3.165( XIX. LINGUISTICS)/ / / / / /hatha hatha hathaaci hathaci hathai hathali+ +kvu ku?u kvuaci ku ?uci kvui ki i?ui+ / e + + -kunve kune ? e kunveaci kuna ? aci kunvei kune ? ei_/ / / /phe phe pheaci phaci phei phei+ / + +-pvo po ? o pvoaci pa? aci pvoi po ? oi+- / +-_- +-_uva u ?a uvaaci ? aci uvai u ? aipvoki po?okiThe forms that occur in Hidatsa can best be explained by postulating two innovationsthat are applied to the grammar of the protolanguage. The first of these innovations con-sists of the addition of a morphophonemic rule to the grammar. Morphophonemic rulesprecede phonetic rules in the grammar of a language and thus have the effect of changingthe phonemic representation of the forms of the language; that is, the representation towhich the phonetic rules apply. This added morphophonemic rule isPH1. o - uThat is, morpheme-final o is replaced by u. With the addition of PHI to the grammarof the protolanguage, a restructuring takes place; that is, the grammar of the proto-language plus the morphophonemic rule PHI is replaced by an equivalent, but formallysimpler, grammar: Equivalent in that the same sentences are generated, and simplerin that there are fewer rules. This new grammar is the same as the grammar of theprotolanguage in all respects except that each morpheme in the grammar that ends withan o is replaced by another that is just like it except that it ends in u. For example,+ +the verb stem pvo is replaced by a verb stem pvu. Thus, the sentences of the languagedo not have the forms of the stem pvo, instead they have the forms+ + +pvu pvuaci pvuiThe phonetic rules P1, P2, and P3 have come into Hidatsa without any changes; butthrough the action of the added morphophonemic rule PH1 and the resultant restructuringthere are no longer any forms of pvo for them to apply to, whereas there are the forms+of pvu. Thus, the new sequences produced by P1, P2, and P3 arepu?u pu?uci pu?uiNote that although the protolanguage form pa?aci becomes, in some sense, Hidatsapu?uci, it is not true that the phonetic entities of the protolanguage form become individu-ally those of the Hidatsa form; rather, the verb stem pvo is replaced by the verb+ +stem pvu, and the rules of the grammar apply to pvu just as they do to any other verbstem of the language.The second innovation that is applied to the grammar - that is, to the grammar thatexists after the addition of PHI and the resultant restructuring - is the addition of the166(XIX. LINGUISTICS)phonetic rule PH2, which follows all of the other phonetic rules of the language.PH2. VIV 2  - V ? V 2That is, a glottal stop is inserted between all sequences of two vowels. Since PH2 is aphonetic rule, it applies to the sequences of phonetic entities that result from the appli-cation of the other phonetic rules of the language. Thus, the phonetic rules of Hidatsaare those of the protolanguage plus PH2; and the results of the application of these pho-netic rules are like those of the protolanguage in the first and second pairs of columns,and the third pair is nowhathai hatha ?i+-kvui ku?u ?kunvel kune/?e?iphei phe ?i+-pvul pu ?u ?iuval u?a?iNo restructuring takes place after the addition of PH2, for there is no equivalent butsimpler grammar than that of the preceding grammar plus PH2.The corresponding forms that occur in Crow are also explainable in terms of thegrammar of the protolanguage plus several innovations. I shall discuss just one of theseinnovations - the addition of the morphophonemic rule PC1 after the other morphophone-mic rules of the language and before the phonetic rules.PCI. vV - V1 1That is, the morphophoneme v is removed, and the vowel following it is accented andlengthened. With the addition of PC1 to the grammar, a restructuring takes place whichconsists of replacing each morpheme in the language that contains the sequence vV with/one that contains the vowel V I instead; and, since now the language no longer contains+the morphophoneme v, the phonetic rule P2 can be removed. Instead of forms of the+ k+ + +- +stems kvu, kunve, pvo, uva, and pvoki, the language now contains forms of the stems/ _/ / / _/ku, kune, po, ua, and poki; and the phonetic rules P1 and P3, which have come intoCrow without any changes, apply to these forms:/ / _/ -ku ku kuaci kuci kui kuikune kune kuneaci kunaci kunei kuneipo po poaci paci poi poiua ua uaaci uaci uai uaipoki poki167(XIX. LINGUISTICS)We have seen that by postulating innovations that are additions of morphophonemicrules to the grammar of the protolanguage - that is, changes that take place on the pho-nemic rather than on the phonetic level of the sentences of the language - we have beenable to explain some of the sound correspondences of Crow and Hidatsa. In particular,we have explained why only three vowels need be reconstructed to account for the sixcorrespondences in the following pairs, in which the first member of each pair is theHidatsa form and the second member is the Crow form: ku?u/ku, ku/?uci/kuci,kune? e/kune, kuna ? aci/kunaci, pu ? u/p, pu?uci/paci, and po ?oki/poki. Note also+that the description of the historical development of the forms of Hidatsa pvu is given interms of regular sound change rather than sound change plus analogic change.G. H. MatthewsReferences1. G. H. Matthews, Syntactic change in Crow and Hidatsa, Quarterly ProgressReport No. 58, Research Laboratory of Electronics, M. I. T., July 15, 1960, pp. 281-283.2. M. Halle, Sound Pattern of Russian (Mouton and Company, 's-Gravenhage, 1959).168

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