Ablaut and reduplication in Dakota: Revisiting the phonology-morphology relationship

In this paper I present a solution for two intertwined puzzles in the morphophonology of Dakota. There is an active ablaut process in Dakota; this process is lexically conditioned in ordinary circumstances, but just in reduplicative contexts the process becomes partially phonologically conditioned. Another challenge that arises from consideration of this ablaut puzzle is that epenthetic vowels appear to “inherit” arbitrary lexical characteristics from adjacent morphemes – something that is impossible according to mainstream theories of morphophonology. I propose an analysis which expands the power of the morphophonological component of the grammar by allowing such inheritance. Such an analysis allows the ablaut and reduplication facts to fall out straightforwardly. It also deepens our understanding of ablaut and reduplication in Dakota, two of the most important phonological processes in that language.