An Explanation for the Unexplainable: Antiharmony in Finnish Inflection (merta and verta)
An Explanation for the Unexplainable: Antiharmony in Finnish Inflection (merta and verta)

Summary/Abstract: No persuasive explanation has been offered for the exceptional disharmony in Finnish merta ’sea-part.sg’ and verta ’blood-part.sg’ until now. In this paper, it is argued that the reason for this phenomenon is complex. On the one hand, the word initial pattern #(C)ertä occurred only in these two forms, while the pattern #(C)erta was - and is - much more common. On the other hand, the change of the forms under analogical pressure was facilitated by the fact that they were isolated inside the paradigm; and therefore, intraparadigmatic analogy could not retard the change.

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