Minding the Gaps in the Wolane Verbal System

Meyer (2006) classifies the verbs of the Ethiosemitic language Wolane into three major types and several subtypes, according to the surface vocalizations of the three stems of each verb. In this paper I show that this classification creates several gaps and asymmetries in the system. Following Voigt (1990) and Goldenberg (1994), I propose a reanalysis according to which there are no verbal types or subtypes. All verbs involve the same vowels in the same positions inside the “discontinuous” root; all surface differences result from the interactions of these vowels with the lexical elements of the root. The existence of such a system is of significance to the debate around the discontinuous root as a morphological object in Semitic.