Morphological re‐analysis in the Bantu nasal class

Thoughts on suppletion in Northern Sotho

“…the items do not have maximal formal difference the phonological change of p to an alveolar does not occur in isolated instances, but may be regularly observed in the formation of the diminutive the items are etymologically related If we follow the example of some scholars who regard a pair "'uch as catch: caught as suppletive, we have reason to treat example (3c) as suppletive as well on the following grounds: the sound change from p to ts is synchronically unmotivated the sound change is triggered by the affixation of a specific morpheme rather than the presence of a specific phoneme Herbert (1978). discussing some instances of non-productive alternation in Venda diminutive forms, suggests that forms which are not synchronically derived by rule from their underlying forms.…”