Phonological Conditions on Affixation

China; Li 1996). According to Li (1996: 201), there are five suffixes in Sibe whose initial
consonant surfaces as either a velar or a uvular. If a low vowel occurs in the stem, the
uvular-initial allomorph is used; otherwise, the velar-initial allomorph is used. The
suffixes involved in the pattern are the adjectival diminutive (with the variants -kɨn, -kun,
-qɨn, -qun), the comparative (-kɨndi, -kundi, -qɨndi, -qundi), the self-perceived immediate
past (-xɨ, -xu, -χɨ, -χu), the non-self-perceived past (-xɤi, -xui, -χɤi, -χui), and the self-
perceived remote past (-xɨŋ, -xuŋ, -χɨŋ, -χuŋ). Examples of the self-perceived immediate
past are shown below (Li 1996: 202).
(7) tükɛ-χu ‘to watch’ gɨnɨ-xɨ ‘to go’
bɔdu-χu ‘to consider’ türü-xu ‘to rent’
lavdu-χu ‘to become more’ utu-xu ‘to dress’
ömi-χɨ ‘to drink’ tɨsu-xu ‘to satisfy’
This example is also discussed by Bye (2005), who has two arguments for why
these examples should be considered cases of PCSA. The first is that the pattern violates
strict locality, since a high front vowel can intervene between the triggering low vowel
and the initial consonant of the stem, suggesting that this is not a regular phonological
rule. The second reason is that not all velar-initial suffixes undergo the alternation: for
example, the imperative suffix surfaces as -kin even when the stem has a low vowel.
Thus, Bye (2005) analyzes the suffixes as each having two underlying forms in a
suppletive relationship. However, the problems for a purely phonological analysis that
were pointed out by Bye seem to be less problematic than the loss of a generalization in
the suppletive analysis. If the allomorphy is suppletive, we cannot explain why five
suffixes exhibit the same pattern. If, on the other hand, we assume that the allomorphy is
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