Phonological and morphological note about negative prefixes

Irregular verbalizer lexically empty dʑak VBZR[NPST] base dʑop VBZR[IMP] dʑak-kuk -PROG;VIS dʑap-soŋ -PST.VIS dʑap-tɕuŋ -PST.EXP dʑap-tuk -PRF.VIS dʑap-a -NMLZ;Q dʑap-na -NFNT1 mat- dʑap-na NEG-VBZR[PST]-NFNT1 dʑap-a bet -NMLZ;Q AUX dʑap-en -1PST dʑap-a -NMLZ;Q Exact English meaning is not given because it varies so much depending on the context. • The first verb ɖo has completely different roots for nonpast ɖo and past soŋ inflections. Its lexical meaning is ’to go’, an activity of moving away from the place of speech act. Obviously 1.person past never occurs. • The verb phin ‘to go and come back’ has no nonpast or imperative root. • The verb sir ‘to say’ allows some verbal suffixes that normally attach to past root. But it does not allow all of them, e.g. sir- soŋ, sir-en 1PST. • The verb root tir ‘give’ allows no past inflection. There is another root, bin, which is used for past. There is also a synonymous verb ʈøt which accepts all inflectional finite and non-finite suffixes. • The verbalizer d ʑak is irregular in the sense that the root-final consonant does not follow any of the patterns described in section 13.1. The lexical meaning comes from the noun it collocates with.

13.4 Negation

13.4.1 Phonological and morphological note about negative prefixes

Lhomi verb roots are always monosyllabic and, as stated earlier, a string of suffixes inflectional or derivational can be attached to a root. In other words there are no verb compounds. Negative prefixes on verbs are the only prefixes which can be attached to a verb root. Prefixes are very rare in other word classes. Earlier I used to classify the negation markers mit and mat as words rather than prefixes. In the current Lhomi Roman orthography I have chosen to classify them as prefixes for the following reasons: • Many related languages like Newar, Jirel, and Yohlmu classify them as prefixes. • Lhomis themselves prefer to write prefixes rather than words in their current Devanagri orthography. • Since the negative markers are the only prefixes Lhomi verbs have, it is acceptable if they behave phonologically in an unusual way. The negative prefix mit- negates nonpast verbs and mat- combines with past and imperative roots. The former prefix is the base form. The negative prefix negates the whole clausesentence. In the verbal phrase without auxiliaries the negative prefix typically attaches to the grammatical head of a verb. If an auxiliary is present, the prefix may occasionally be attached to it. The morphophonemic changes which take place in the prefix and in the initial consonant of the verb will explain why Lhomi negative prefix has a final t. The following morphophonemic rules apply when a verb is negated by a negative prefix: • High-low register contrast of the verb is governed by the verb, not by the prefix. In Lhomi it is the whole word which is either in tense register or lax register. • Nonpast prefix mit- attaches to nonpast verb roots. • Past prefix mat- attaches to past verb roots and to imperative verb roots. • When the initial phoneme of the verb root is m, n, ŋ, l, lh, r, h, j, w or a vowel, the final t of the prefix changes to a glottal stop which is a phonetic variant of alveolar stop t. • When the initial phoneme of the verb is any other consonant phoneme s, ɕ, t, ʈ, ts, tɕ, tsh, tɕh the final t of the prefix assimilates to the root-initial consonant and there is an audible gemination. • There is phonological stress on the prefix particularly when the negated verb is without any suffixation. There is also a negation marker - moŋ-maŋ which is suffixed to a finite verb, e.g. example 13.23. I gloss this morpheme as NEG.PST.EXP. It is the negative counterpart of -t ɕuŋ, which marks the direct experience for speakerhearer. Morphologically it seems to be a merger which explains why occasionally also mat-lit-t ɕuŋ ‘he did not arrive’ occurs. See also section 14.1.1. The operators that nominalize verbs are very common in Lhomi and all kinds of negations take place in those operations but they are not included in examples below. The negative prefixes mit- and mat- have merged with existentials and copulas as shown in table 13.4 and table 13.5. Table 13.4. Negative prefixes merging with equative copular verbs mit- +copula mit- + auxiliary Fused form Morpheme glosses of fused forms mit- + bet mem-pet NEG-COP mit- + him=pa mem=pa NEG.COP.EXP=Q mit- + hin- ʈo men- ʈo NEG.COP-PROB mit- + hin men NEG.COP.EXP mit- + hiŋ-køppet meŋ-køppet NEG.COP-INFER Table 13.5. Negative prefixes merging with existential copular verbs mit- +existential mit- +auxiliary Fused form Morpheme glosses of fused forms mit- +jøt mit NEG.EXIST.EXP mit- +jøp=pa mip=pa NEG.EXIST.EXP=Q mit- +jøppa bet mip-pa bet NEG.EXIST-NMLZ;Q AUX mit- +duk min-tuk NEG-EXIST.VIS mit- +jøʈ-ʈo miʈ-ʈo NEG.EXIST-PROB mit- + jøt- tɕaŋ mit- tɕaŋ NEG.EXIST-NFNT3

13.4.2 Negative prefix attached to the grammatical head of a finite volitional verb