Mouvements et clonages de voyelles en motlav: Entre phonologie et morphologie

In his first account of motlav grammar, Codrington (1885), followed by Kasarhérou (1962), described the phonological rule of «vowel shifting»: a number of prefixes change their vowel into that of the following lexeme, e.g. na-+ vôy > nô-vôy. We first show that this rule only accounts for half of the lexicon, namely CV- roots, whereas for CCV- roots no change occurs, leaving an unvarying vowel instead. After discussing a diachronic hypothesis in order to account for these two distinct morphological sets (ie CV- vs. CCV-), we try and reanalyse the whole system synchronically, thanks to newly defined theoretical tools. For instance, our choice of a multi-linear approach allows us to take into consideration the notion of «floating phoneme», in order to account for the behaviour of these prefixes; and the same notion appears to be efficient in analysing «vowel transfer» (e.g. na- + hinag > m-hnag), another phonological rule of the same language. Last but not least, the rule for «syllabic epenthesis» (e.g. mtig > mitig) is the key to the whole system, through which certain so-called morphological categories prove to be entirely derivable from phonological patterns.