Zaborski Andrzej. The Semitic External Plural in an Afroasiatic Perspective / Consonant Apophony and Consonant Alternation in Bilin Plurals

Undena Publications, 1976. — 28 p. — (Monographic journals of the Near East: Afroasiatic linguistics 3.6).Vocalic lengthening is not to be reconstructed as a plural- marker in Afroasiatic. Rather there was -w that assimilated in Semitic to the preceding vowel. This -ui ~ -uwa is well attested in the various branches of Afroasiatic. The other plural suffix attested is -an.Bilin, a Northern Agaw language, makes a great deal of use of consonant apophony in plural -formation. This is a morphophonemic process, not a merely phonemic one. It often cooccurs with other plural -forming devices. The possible historical origin of the consonant correspondences is discussed. Other Agaw languages make only a limited use of consonant apophony; elsewhere in Cushitic it occurs sporadically. Some typologically parallel developments took place elsewhere in Afroasiatic (e.g. the hypocoristic style in Tuareg, the Hausa plural).