On the Development of Agreement Markers in Some Northern Philippine Languages

Abstract

This paper attempts to provide an explanation for an innovation occurring in the Central Cordilleran languages of the Philippines, in which what were originally derivational endings en] and an] lose their final nasal when they carry first, second or third person singular agreement features, respectively k], m] and na]. It is claimed that this situation arose as a result of the incorporation of a reduced form of what was originally a genitive case-marking preposition ni as n] onto vowel-final verbs and their nominal counterparts. An analogy was then established between these forms ending in n] and derived forms with en] and an] endings, so that the latter were also perceived as being vowel-final for the purpose of substituting the k], m] and na] agreement endings. The discussion is presented within the Lexicase theoretical framework, specifically its claim that words have neither internal structure nor morphological boundaries.