Vowel Gradation in Nakh-Daghestanian Verbal Stems

Mikhail Alekseyev

Journal of Language Relationship, № 1, 2009 - p.31-36

Abstract: The main goal of the article is to briefly analyze the series of vocalic gradation (Ablaut) observed in the verbal systems of all the subgroups of the Nakh-Daghestanian language family. It is shown that the diversity of vocalic gradation, attested in most of these subgroups, does not justify the frequent treatment of Nakh-Daghestanian verbal roots as primarily monoconsonantal. It is also shown that such vocalic gradations usually cannot be explained through the inner history of the subgroups themselves, meaning that a certain variety of Ablaut must have existed already in Proto-Nakh-Daghestanian. However, the exact reconstruction of this variety is still a task for the future.

Keywords: Nakh-Daghestanian languages, comparative phonology

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