Romanian iotacization and the morphology of second person singular verb-forms. The type (tu) vii, (tu) rămâi

Journal article

This study seeks to understand, from a comparative-historical perspective, the origins of Romanian second person singular present-tense verb-forms of the type vii, rămâi, alternating with the root-allomorph vin-, rămân-. It is argued that neither the historical emergence of this type, nor its subsequent resistance to analogical levelling, can be satisfactorily explained in ways traditionally proposed in the Romanian historical linguistic literature. Appeals to phonological conditioning as the explanation of the alternant’s emergence, and to avoidance of homonymic clash as the explanation of its subsequent persistence, seem untenable. Rather, at work in both cases is the analogical influence exercised over verbs having root-final nasals by a pattern of alternation characteristic of verbs having root-final dentals. This abstract and essentially morphological analogical conditioning is argued to operate even when the dental alternation might still be considered to be phonologically conditioned.

Authors: Maiden, M

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Editura Academiei Romane
• Journal: Revue Roumaine de Linguistique
• Volume: 63
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 325-340
• Publication date: 2018-12-01
• Acceptance date: 2018-12-01
• ISSN: 0035-3957
• Keywords: Romanian; morphomic structure; analogy; iotacization; homonymic clash; verb; morphology