Edited by Balthasar Bickel, Lenore A. Grenoble, David A. Peterson and Alan Timberlake
[Typological Studies in Language 104] 2013
► pp. 445–462
The choice of stem vowel in the Lak second singular affirmative transitive imperative (2sgafftriv) is highly unpredictable and is the least normalized area of Lak grammar. None of the codifying works of Lak supply this form, and the proposed rules have approximately a 50 percent degree of accuracy. Based on available written sources as well as field work in Lakkia, this article presents the first comprehensive treatment of 2sgafftriv in Lak and proposes that the differences go back to the same sort or animacy and transitivity criteria suggested by the system that survives in Dargi. The two appendices serve as (1) a dictionary of 2sgafftriv Lak imperative formation and (2) a classification by stem vowel and attestation for use by Caucasologists and typologists.