Aspects of the use of predicative morphemes
with a dropping vowel in the Koryak and Alutor languages

In the Koryak and Alutor languages, there are etymologically composite postfix predicative
markers that contain a segment with a dropping vowel. According to the phonetic rules of the
Chukchi-Koryak languages, this vowel must drop at the absolute end of the word and recover
in the medial position. Consideration of five different predicatives (relational, possessive and
qualitative adjectives, negative attributive and past participle) showed that the Koryak and Alutor
languages are not equally strict in the application of this phonetic rule.
In the Koryak language, the process of dropping and restoring of the vowel is sufficiently automatic.
The marker with a final vowel cannot be used as an independent morpheme. Therefore,
in the absolute end of the word, it necessarily drops. The vowel restoration is possible only in the
medial position when it is followed by the affixes of dual and plural number, and for some
predicatives, also by the case or personal markers. When the vowel is absent, the predicative affix
expresses singular number, while a vowel is restored before obligatory numeral morphemes –
non-singular. Before the case and personal markers, if a predicative allows their use, numeral
oppositions are neutralized.
Alutor language demonstrates much greater freedom in the use of numeral affixes after predicative
morphemes. The spontaneity of the process of vowel dropping and restoring is lost, that
is why the restoration of the vowel does not obligatory lead to the occurrence of a numeral postfix
after it. The Alutor speakers have a choice in their use, so the numeral affixes became optional.
Especially often the plural markers are dropped. The predicate morphemes, according to presence
or absence of a final vowel, express the opposition of singular and non-singular numbers
by themselves.
In the two most frequent predicatives of Alutor (the qualitative adjective and the past participle),
unique forms of the third person plural with short and extended allomorphs characteristic
of folklore have appeared. One of the hypotheses of their origin is the early borrowing from the
Koryak language of a morphemes complex from the frequent Presence form. In the speech
of some native speakers of the Alutor language, engaged in reindeer herding and actively contacting
with nomadic Koryaks, the third person plural forms of the past participle, borrowed from the
modern Koryak language, are used sporadically.
In one of the predicates, namely the negative attributive, both models of plurality expression
are implemented – the additive model with the restoration of the vowel and the optional use
of numeral morphemes and the substitutional model, when a morphemes complex of the negative
attributive is partially dropped, and the unique plural Alutor marker is used, by analogy with the
most frequent predicatives.