Dissertation - Michael Becker

(69) a. xalon-ótgdol-ímniftax-ímwindow-plbig-plopening-pl‘big windows are opening’b. nemal-ímktan-ótnixnas-ótant-plsmall-plentering-pl‘small ants are coming in’In the loanword phonology, the plural suffix selection is completely regular even at theword level: If the right edge of the singular noun is recognizable as a feminine suffix, as infukáÙ-a, –ot is selected (70a), otherwise it’s –im, as in blóg-im (70b). This even applies tonouns that refer to male humans, like koléga (70c). Loanwords that refer to female humansbut don’t have a plausible feminine suffix on them, like madám, mostly resist pluralization 4(70d).(70) a. fukáÙ-a * fukáÙ-im fukáÙ-ot ‘focaccia’b. blóg blóg-im * blóg-ot ‘blog’c. kolég-a * kolég-im kolég-ot ‘(male) colleague’d. madám ? madám-im ??? madám-ot ‘madam (in a brothel)’A final factor that affects the distribution of the plural allomorphs is phonological.Masculine native nouns show a clustering of the ot-takers: most of the masculine nounsthat exceptionally take –ot have [o] in their final syllable (Glinert 1989; p. 454, Aronoff1994; p. 76). This preference for –ot in masculine nouns that end in [o] applies productivelyto novel nouns, as seen in Berent, Pinker & Shimron (1999, 2002) and in §3.3 below. Thefeminine native nouns are less interesting, because there are relatively few im-takers amongthem, and those few im-takers don’t seem to pattern in any noticeable way.To summarize so far, there are three factors that determine plural allomorph selectionwithout exception:4 Some speakers offer madám-iy-ot as the plural of madám, i.e. they add the feminine suffix –it to theroot to make a more plausible singular feminine stem for the plural –ot to attach to. The change of –it to –iybefore –ot is regular in the language (Bat-El 2008a).77