African language, Maninka (Textbook, Exercise 15)

Consider these data from the African language Maninka. Remember you are going to be
looking for patterns in how the morphemes behave.

 
Bugo "hit" Bugoli "hitting"

Dila "repair" Dilali "repairing"

Don "come in" Donni "coming in"

Dumu "eat" Dumuni "eating"

Gwen "chase" Gwenni "chasing"

 

1. What are the two forms of the morpheme meaning -ing?

[li] [ni]

1. Predict which phonetic form will occur. State a rule for your prediction.

Those roots which have a nasal in the ending syllable, they take [ni] form. All other roots
take [li] form. 

1. What are the "-ing" forms for the following verbs?

 
 

Verb Meaning -ing form of verb

da "lie down" dali

men "hear" Menni

famu "understand" famuni

 

1. What does the rule that you formulated predict for the "-ing" form of sunogo "sleep"?

sunogoli
 
 1. If your rule predicts sunogoli, modify it to predict sunogoni without affecting the other
occurrences of -li. Conversely, if your rule predicts sunogoni, modify it to predict
sunogoli without affecting the other occurrences of -ni.

Because the 'n' does not occur in the last syllable, which is why only [li] will be used.