Inflectional Verbal Morphology

Stem-initial consonant mutation

See also Nominal morphology for the similar phenomenon in nouns.

Verb stems undergo a stem-initial consonant mutation as a form of inflection for plural subject. Only initial consonants that can mutate actually do mutate; some never appear to mutate (e.g. /j/, /m/, /n/). Verbs intended as plurals that do not show a distinct plural allomorph are often disambiguated from singular forms with the addition of a suffix (or clitic?) -jo.

The mutation follows one of two "tracks", depending on whether or not the stem-initial consonant is an implosive. Note that these mutations are simplified relative to the nominal stem-initial consonat mutations.

The non-implosive "track":

• (sg) continuants --> (pl) prenasalized stop, e.g. weʄ --> mbeʄ 'to swim' (022)
• (sg) voiceless oral stop, non-implosive --> (pl) prenasalized stop (not well-attested, few verbs with initial voiceless stops)
• (sg) voiced oral stop, non-implosive --> (pl) prenasalized stop, disooχ --> ndisooχ 'to sneeze' (029)

The implosive "track":

• (sg) voiced implosive stop --> (pl) voiceless implosive stop, e.g. ɗok --> ƭok 'to grind' (047)