Talk:kééhatʼį́
Add topicLatest comment: 6 years ago by Łoo' Hashkéhé in topic tone
tone
[edit]Why does this verb have a low tone vowel in its pre-stem syllable?
- kééha- is a compound prefix used only with the stem -tʼį́. kééha- is a compound of kéé- + ha-, where kéé- is in position Ia, and ha- (indefinite deictic 3rd-person subject pronoun denoting space or area) is in position IV. ha- has a low tone. —Stephen (Talk) 00:26, 20 February 2018 (UTC)
- The meaning and the inherent tone of those prefixes is pretty clear. But how about this rule from "The Navajo Verb" by Faltz: If the pre-stem syllable has a short vowel in it, then it acquires a high tone if the syllable immediately preceding it has a high tone on the vowel that it ends with. I've just looked through some examples in Young's The Navajo Verb System. In those paradigms ha- changes its tone after ná- or náá(ná) as in náhádleeh or nááhádleeh. It seems to be some kind fo irregularity in kééhatʼį́. —Łoo' Hashkéhé (talk) 06:44, 3 March 2018 (UTC)