487

word-finally (without a following -na) it seems to
require something before it to summarize.

On aka and uka, which already have a potential
summarizing function, -ka occurs directly on the root,
whether it is sentence-initial or -final. On other nouns
the behavior of -ka is different. Sentence-initial
nouns may take final -ka only if one or more deriva-
tional suffixes (or zero complement vowel drop, which
acts like a suffix) precede it on the stem; -ka does
not occur directly on a plain noun root occurring sen-
tence initially. On the other hand, sentence-final
nouns are not so restricted. Such nouns may take the
suffix -ka whether or not there are any derivational
suffixes on the noun root.

All of this suggests that when it occurs word-
finally (with no other suffixes after it), -ka must have
something before it longer than a single root. Thus, in
order to take -ka a sentence-initial noun must have
suffixes on it. A sentence-final noun need not have
such suffixes, because when -ka occurs on a sentence-
final noun, -ka summarizes not only the word it occurs
on but all else that went before it in the sentence.

Although this hypothesis needs further testing,
it appears that -ka is probably best analyzed at present
as a reduced (but already frozen) form of uka or aka.

More study of its occurrences is needed to determine