Development of the Udi Verb out of its Proto-Lezgian Sources

Abstract This chapter investigates how the structure of the Udi verb developed out of its Proto-Lezgian and Proto-North East Caucasian sources. In particular, I consider several hypotheses concerning the origins of endoclisis of PMs (and other clitics) in contemporary Udi. At issue are the intermorphemic position of the PM between the Inc E and light verb of a complex verbstem (the rule 4 position described in Chapter 6, e.g. aš -ne-b-esa [work-3sG-DO-PRES] ‘she works’), and the intramorphemic position, internal to the root of a simplex verb (the rule 7 position, e.g. a-t’u-k’-e [see1-1NV3sc-see2-AORII] ‘she saw him’). In Chapter 4 I showed that from a synchronic point of view, both simplex and complex verbstems are single lexical items, and in Chapter 5 I established that PMs are clitics. In Chapter 6 I showed, among other things, that PMs occur between the parts of complex verbstems and internal to simplex verbstems, making the PMs endoclitics.