Meskangela: Difference between revisions

Although attempts have been made to reconstruct a quasi-regular “ablaut” system for Proto-Meskangela, the vowel gradation in the Classical Meskangela variety is sporadic and irregular, especially in case of open-syllable roots. Some verb conjugational pattern may be attributed to the Proto-Meskangela affixes that later merged with the verb stem, such as the "a-ö" alternation, which often shows up in the derivational morphology of Meskangela. Pairs, such as, ''khitan'' “to rub” and ''khutan'' “to scratch”, ''rum'' “darkness” and ''rim'' “evening” are relatively common with back vowels often representing a more "internalised" process or abstract phenomenon, than their front counterparts which are more concrete and "external". Certain prefixes have active and passive counterparts, such as ''si-'' (active transitive) and ''su-'' (mediopassive): ''sinnaŋan'' “to read (something)” and ''sunnaŋan'' “to read (in general)/ to be read” (hence Western ''sunnaŋ'' “book”).