Concerning Inflection Classes in Livonian
Concerning Inflection Classes in Livonian

Summary/Abstract: Livonian has among the Finnic languages characteristically the ­greatest variety of optional inflectional ending variants and the most complicated system of morphophonological alternations. The present article gives an overview of the repertoire of simple inflectional forms in verbal and nominal paradigms (53 verb forms and 25 nominal forms) and their ending variants, as well as morphophonological alternations. These ending variants and morphemic alternations served as a basis for establishing 62 verb types and 238 nominal types. For this reason, a minimal set of forms of classificatory significance was established, and the types were arranged into classes on the basis of the series of ending variants in the paradigms. The article provides an introduction to this procedure on the basis of verb types; 22 classes and 5 declensions were established.

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