An analogical approach to the behaviour of stems of foreign origin with marked consonant clusters at the end in the accusative case in Hungarian

Authors

  • Gyula Lantay Szegedi Tudományegyetem, Nyelvtudományi Doktori Iskola, Általános Nyelvészeti Tanszék

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18349/MagyarNyelv.2020.3.299

Keywords:

analogical grammar, gangs, accusative case, extrasillabicity, linking vowel, consonant cluster

Abstract

This paper examines nouns of foreign origin with strongly marked consonant clusters at the end and how they behave when Hungarian native speakers inflect them for the accusative case. Unlike other Hungarian nouns (or what speakers reckon as Hungarian nouns), a significant part of Hungarian native speakers add the accusative case marker to these nouns without a linking vowel (e.g. taps > tapsot [tɒpʃ] > [tɒpʃot] ‘applause, nom. > acc.’ but Hanks > Hankst [hɛŋks] > [hɛŋkst]) which is highly unexpected. The investigation took place within the model of analogical grammar. The gang of monomorphemic Hungarian nouns that end in the consonant clusters [ks], [ns], or [ps] facilitates the appearance of a linking vowel in recent words of foreign origin with three consonants at the end when Hungarian speakers inflect them for the accusative case. When, on the other hand, there is no linking vowel at the end of the nouns of foreign origin in the accusative, the gang that affects them comprises those Hungarian monomorphemic nouns which have non-branching codas with an [s] in them. There are three gangs that affect the nouns of foreign origin with two consonants at the end. The first one is where the branching coda’s first consonant is [r] or [l] and a linking vowel is required. The second and third gangs comprise Hungarian monomorphemic nouns that have non-branching codas with an [l] (in the case of the second gang) or with an [n] (in the case of the third gang). These two gangs allow their members to exhibit the absence of a linking vowel when they are in the accusative case.

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Published

2020-11-25

Issue

Section

Tanulmányok