Allomorphy in Sakha Case Suffixation
The Sakha(Yakut) language has a variety of case suffixes, including nominative, comitative, accusative, partitive, dative, ablative, instrumental, and comparative. Moreover, depending on the environments, there are numerous allomorphic distributions in case suffixation processes. In this paper, we attempt to provide a uniform representation for each case suffixation and explain why such allomorphic distributions occur. To this end, we employ the basic concepts of feature underspecification for the alternating vowels and consonants which surface as full segments depending on the given contexts, i. e., vowel harmony or the featural properties of the preceding root-final segments. Moreover, employing the framework of Optimality Theory, we show how those consonantal as well as vocalic alternations can be accounted for by several simple constraints, such as *VV, Vowel Harmony, *OnsetCC, Share, etc. In dative suffixation, furthermore, we observe that stem-final vowels may affect the segmental specification of the suffix-initial consonants. For this vowel-consonant interaction, we invoke the vocalic feature [open] which spreads to the suffix-initial consonant, raising the consonantal aperture. The paper is an explanation for why choose one or the other allomorphs. The work will serve as a reference material for researchers, will help focus on the allomorphs Yakut language. This optimally-theoretical approach could be applied to other studies in the field of phonology and morphology of the Yakut.