Talk:naaʼahóóhaiłbáhí

That interstitial "h"

Given what I've seen so far, other instances of nominalization with -í just take the suffix directly, so I'd expect łibá to nominalize as łibáí, not łibáhí. Does anyone know why that "h" shows up towards the end in this term?

It’s called a ligature h. An h is sometimes inserted as a ligature between an open stem vowel and an enclitic, as: tóhígíí (tó + -ígíí = the water); tóhę́ę (tó + ę́ę = the aforementioned water); shimáhą́ą (shimá + ą́ą = my former mother).

Also, the stem -bá (gray) is frequently associated with an h. -bá comes from -bááh (to become/make gray). The imperfective stem is -bááh, iterative is -bah, perfective is -baʼ, future is -bah, optative is -bááh, neuter imperfective is -bá. —Stephen ^(Talk) 19:57, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

Excellent, thank you! Does the name "ligature" imply that this is not pronounced, and is purely a typographical feature? My guess from your description of the verb paradigm is that no, this is pronounced; though then the name "ligature" is a bit misleading. Ah, well -- Y&M sometimes have chosen odd (to me) labels for things. Took me a while to 1) understand what was meant by, and then 2) accept the terminology choice for, the label "neuter verb", for instance.  :)

Thanks again for the detail! ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 00:53, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

It’s pronounced. There is also a ligature n. When -í or -ígíí are added to a verb stem that ends in an open short nasalized vowel with high tone, a ligature n is inserted before the enclitic: sitį́ (he lies) = sitíní, sitínígíí (the one that lies). To me, ligature means connecting. —Stephen ^(Talk) 17:56, 8 March 2014 (UTC)