Seefloth's Paradigm
Seefloth's Paradigm is a verbal inflectional paradigm reconstructed by the German linguist Uwe Seefloth for Uralo-Siberian in 2000 on the ground of data from Uralic and Eskimo-Aleut.
The paradigm
The paradigm encodes the person and number of the subject, and for transitive verbs, also the number of the object. The exact shape of the paradigm is not explicitly given in Seefloth's paper, but it can be summarized as this:
| Intransitive | Sg. object | Du. object | Pl. object | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1sg. | -mV/-kV | -mV | -k-mV | -t-mV |
| 2sg. | -tV/-nV | -tV | -k-tV | -t-tV |
| 3sg. | -0 | -sa | -k-sa | -i-sa |
| 1du. | -mV-k/-kV-k | -mV-k | -k-mV-k | -t-mV-k |
| 2du. | -tV-k/-nV-k | -tV-k | -k-tV-k | -t-tV-k |
| 3du. | -k | -sa-k | -k-sa-k | -i-sa-k |
| 1pl. | -mV-t/-kV-t | -mV-t | -k-mV-t | -t-mV-t |
| 2pl. | -tV/-nV-t | -tV-t | -k-tV-t | -t-tV-t |
| 3pl. | -t | -sa-t | -k-sa-t | -i-sa-t |
Evidence
For Northern Samoyedic, the following paradigm can be reconstructed:
| Intransitive | Sg. object | Du. object | Pl. object | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1sg. | -m | -mə | -kVj-i-nə | -i-nə |
| 2sg. | -n(-tə) | -rə (< -tə) | -kVj-i-tə | -i-tə (< -i-t-tə) |
| 3sg. | -0 | -ta (< -sa) | -kVj-i-ta | -i-ta (< -i-sa) |
| 1du. | -mi-ñ | -mi-ñ | -kCj-i-ni-ñ | -i-ni-ñ |
| 2du. | -ti-ñ | -ti-ñ | -kCj-i-ti-ñ | -i-ti-ñ |
| 3du. | -kə-ñ | -ti-ñ (< -si-ñ) | -kVj-i-ti-ñ | -i-ti-ñ (< -i-si-ñ) |
| 1pl. | -ma-t | -ma-t | -kVj-i-na-t | -i-na-t |
| 2pl. | -ta-t | -ta-t | -kVj-i-ta-t | -i-ta-t |
| 3pl. | 0-t | -to-n (< -so-n) | -kVj-i-to-n | -i-to-n (< -i-so-n) |
A similar paradigm can be reconstructed for Proto-Eskumo-Aleut:
| Intransitive | Sg. object | Du. object | Pl. object | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1sg. | -[tk]-m-ka | -[m]-ka | -k-[m]-ka | -t-[m]-ka |
| 2sg. | -[tk]-ən | -n | -kə-n | -tə-n |
| 3sg. | -0 | -sa | -k | -i-sa |
| 1du. | -[tk]-mə-k | -mə-k | -k-mə-k | (=sg.) |
| 2du. | -[tk]-tə-k | -tə-k | -k-tə-k | (=sg.) |
| 3du. | -0-k | -sa-k | -kə-k | -i-sa-k |
| 1pl. | -[tk]-mə-t | -mə-t | -k-mə-t | (=sg.) |
| 2pl. | -[tk]-tə-t | -tə-t | -k-tə-t | (=sg.) |
| 3pl. | -0-t | -sa-t | -kə-t | -i-sa-t |
Object person?
Three groups of Uralo-Siberian languages - Mordvinic, Chukotko-Kamchatkan and Eskimo-Aleut - also inflect their transitive verbs for the person of the object. It remains to be examined whether these markers are cognate, or separate innovations. If the turned out to be cognate, the dimension of object person would be to be added to the paradigm.
Seefloth's Paradigm in Indo-European?
Jens Elmegård Rasmussen reconstructed the following verbal endings for Pre-Proto-Indo-European in 2003:
| Singular | Dual | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | -me | -G-me-G | -D-me-D |
| 2nd person | -te | -G-te-G | -D-te-D |
wherein *D and *G represent voiced dental and velar spirants, respectively. If one assumes that the number marker before the personal morpheme originally was an object number marker (on the ground that more often than not, multiple agents work multiple objects), these forms could be reduced to Seefloth's Paradigm.
A Proto-Mitian paradigm?
Given the fact that the paradigm is found in languages from opposite ends of the Mitian cluster, and that the validity of the Uralo-Siberian node within Mitian is uncertain, it is possible that it is of Proto-Mitian vintage, if such a protolanguage existed at all.
Sources
- Rasmussen, Jens Elmegård. 2003. Re: Nominative: A hybrid view. CYBALIST mailing list post #22349.
- Seefloth, Uwe. 2000. "Die Entstehung polypersonaler Paradigmen im Uralo-Sibirischen." Zentralasiatische Studien 30, 163-191.
