Íscégon: Difference between revisions

In a historical perspective, it is interesting to note how, as the Íscégon cases were merged, different forms were used for different plurals. Cerian, for example, did not innovate any nominative plural (except for ''-oran'' indefinite from the noun ''ógoran'' "group"), but its oblique forms for both singular and plural continue the Íscégon lative. Besagren, on the other hand, which does not distinguish case anymore, generalized the plural of consonant-final stems including an ''-n'' as the majority of these had an ''n'' in Íscégon. Compare the words for "tree": ''útin'' became Cerian ''vútin'', nom.pl. ''vútiné'', but its Besagren translation (from the Late Íscégon diminutive ''útimítin'', as the full cognate ''utzi'' "wood" is singularia tantum) is ''utzimìt'', pl. ''utzimindè'' [utsimiˈɳɖɛ] — morphemically ''utzimìt-nè''. Note, though, that consonant assimilations in Besagren often led to irregular plurals that have not been regularized, e.g. Ísc. ''báresi'', ''báresiér'' "road(s)" > ''barisi'' [ˈbarisi], ''barissè'' [bariˈʃɛ] (cf. Cerian invariable ''bóši'').