We’ve seen two productive plural allomorphs characterized by round vowels: BVCV > BuCooC vs. BVVCV [-front] > BooCuC. Let’s see where -oo- shows up in the plurals of longer nouns.
Nouns of the form BVCVD(V) [-front] tend to take a plural in BuCooDu (the reduplicative plural horoɗyo > horoɗyuc, discussed last time, seems to be isolated):
- jorol “fox” > juroolu
- ɗoloso “lynx” > ɗuloosu
- kabada “red fig” > kuboodu
- jubugo “arrow” > juboogu
- wasaga “thread” > wusoogu
In two cases, a suffix -k is added, with what seems to be dissimilation of *-guk > -yuk:
- fidak “mat” > fudooyuk
- cagada “hut” > cugooduk
Formally, despite the shape and the front vowel (which may lead us to rethink the conditioning), the following cases fit this pattern as well:
- kurri “chicken” (assimilated from *kurɗi) > kurooɗuk
- urde “granary” > urooduk
In another two cases, both ending in -k, the expected final vowel is omitted:
- tamak “sheep” > tumook
- koɗogo “toe-ring” > kuɗook
And, as we saw last time, in one case the final consonant is irregularly reduplicated:
- bodol “road” > budoolul
If a long vowel is present and this plural type is used, vowel length is normally preserved; thus BVCVVDV yields BuCooDu – sometimes, as above, the final vowel is omitted to end in -k:
- ɗyubaago “blind” > ɗyuboogu
- sinyaaro “cat” > sinyooru (the i in the first syllable is probably caused by the following palatal)
- duwaago “dorcas gazelle” > duwok (with unexpected shortening of the last vowel)
but BVVCVDV yields BooCuD(u):
- gaayimo “wildcat” > gooyumu
- kaarumo “fingernail” > koorum
On the other hand, we also find the variant plural gaayimo > guyoomu, suggesting that BuCooDu is starting to be generalized.
What about longer nouns? In those, frontness is irrelevant...
A nasal followed by a voiced stop (except in the Arabic borrowing (a)ngumbul "calabash" > (a)ngunoobul) behaves like vowel length, so BVNDVF(V) > Bo(o)CDuF:
- tengil “calf” > tongul
- minjilo “Mubi person” > monjul
- humbuk “hedgehog” > hoombuk
In the few relevant examples available, BVCVDFV(GV) > BuCoDFu(G), whether D is nasal or not:
- gomorko “basket” > gumorku
- suwangot “Arab” > suwongu
- aranjala “kidney” > uronjul
Otherwise, four-consonant nouns BVCDVF(V), BVCV(V)DVF(V) overwhelmingly (15 out of 24 examples) map to BuCooDuF:
- ɗurgul “donkey” > ɗuroogul
- kalman “in-law” > kuloomun
- sunsuna “tale” > sunoosun
- kasagar “sword” > kusoogur
- kodoguno “sorcerer” > kudoogun
- giraakumo “molar” > gurookum
Now we can finally start to put things together: all of these seem to be mapping to subsets of a notional template CuCo(o/C)CuCu, in a predictable fashion.
If the first syllable is long or includes the first half of a prenasalized stop, you drop the initial Cu:
| BVVC > | Cu[BooCuC]u |
| BVVCV > | Cu[BooCuC]u |
| BVVCVD(V) > | Cu[BooCuDu] |
| BVNDVF(V) > | Cu[BoCDuF]u |
If the first syllable is open and the second one is closed, you get oC instead of oo:
| BVCVDFV > | [BuCoDFu]Cu |
| BVCVDFVG > | [BuCoDFuG]u |
Otherwise, you just proceed from left to right, always respecting the requirement that the output have at least 2 syllables:
| BVCV > | [BuCooC]uCu |
| BVCDV > | [BuCooDuk]u |
| BVCVC(V) > | [BuCooDu]Cu |
| BVCVVD(V) > | [BuCooDu]Cu |
| BVCDVF(V) > | [BuCooDuF]u |
| BVCV(V)DVF(V) > | [BuCooDuF]u |
So we’re starting to get somewhere. But this opens up a new can of worms: do some geminate-internal plurals belong here too? And where do those BaaCaC plurals fit into the system now? Those questions will have to wait for another time.
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