41.2. Infix LE or ¸LE
Models
| 1) | Á¸LEṈ | ‘house’ | ÁLE¸LEṈ | ‘houses’ |
| 2) | MÁ¸ȻEȽ | ‘hurt’ | MÁLE¸ȻEȽ | ‘several hurt’ |
| 3) | SĆÁ¸ĆE¸ | ‘friend’ | SĆÁLE¸ĆE¸ | ‘friends’ |
| 4) | YÁ¸ | ‘go’ | YÁLE¸ | ‘they go’ |
| 5) | KÁ¸ṈI¸ | ‘young woman’ | KÁLEṈI¸ | ‘young women’ |
| 6) | PUS | ‘cat’ | PU¸LES | ‘cats’ |
| 7) | ŚÁT | ‘bullet’ | ŚÁ¸LET | ‘bullets’ |
| 8) | ȽOȾ | ‘itchy’ | ȽO¸LEȾ | ‘they are itchy’ |
| 9) | ṮOM¸ | ‘enough’ | ṮO¸LEM¸ | ‘they are enough’ |
| 10) | XIJ | ‘get scratched’ | XÁ¸LEJ | ‘they get scratched’ |
‣ 1 The meaning of these forms of the collective plural is exactly the same as the meaning for the EL form in §41.1. The infixed form refers to a group or set of items.
‣ 2 The models here are shown in two groups. Models 1 through 5 have the LE /lə/ and models 6 through 10 have the ¸LE /ʔlə/. Look carefully at the nonplural forms in these two sets, and try to identify what each set has in common. What makes each word in models 1 through 5 different from each word in models 6 through 10?
‣ 3 The nonplural forms in models 1 through 5 all have a stressed vowel followed by a glottal stop, which is followed by another consonant (models 1, 2, 3, 5) or the end of the word (model 4).
‣ 4 The nonplural forms in models 6 through 10 all have a single consonant, followed by a vowel, followed by a single consonant. We call these CVC stems—Consonant-Vowel-Consonant. (Remember that M¸ is a single consonant /m̕/.)
‣ 5 Now compare all of the models here to all of the models in §41.1. You will see that none of the nonplurals in §41.1 are like the nonplurals here. None there are CVC and none have the stressed vowel-glottal stop-consonant pattern.
‣ 6 We can formulate a three-part L Infix Plural Rule:
A. If the stressed vowel is followed by a glottal stop and one consonant or the end of the word, insert LE /lə/ after the stressed vowel.
B. If the stem is CVC, insert ¸LE /ʔlə/ after the stressed vowel.
C. Otherwise, insert EL /əl/ after the first consonant of the root.
‣ 7 Note that part A of this rule takes precedence over part B because of words like model 4, YÁ¸, which is CVC but takes LE and not ¸LE.‣ 8 This rule does have a very few exceptions. For example, look at model 5 and see how it is different from the rest. We would expect this plural to be *KÁLE¸ṈI¸, but, as the word is correctly pronounced, there is no glottal stop after the LE. This is the only word in the language like this, where a glottal stop drops in the plural.
‣ 9 These six words below are exceptions. The first 5 are CVC, but take LE after the stressed vowel instead of the expected ¸LE. The last one is CCVC. For that one, we might expect *TELḴÁP or maybe *TKÁ¸LEP, but those are not correct plurals for that exceptional word.
JÁṈ¸ ‘arrive home’ JÁLEṈ¸ ‘they arrive home’
ȽÁU¸ ‘flee’ ȽÁLEU¸ ‘they flee’
SÁU ‘on the beach’ SÁLEU ‘they are on the beach’
SȾOM¸ ‘bone’ SȾOLEM¸ ‘bones’
ŦOṈ ‘go up inland’ ŦOLEṈ ‘they go up inland’
TḴÁP ‘fish trap’ TḴÁLEP ‘fish traps’
 | QENNEW̱ E SW̱ ȻSE SĆÁLE¸ĆE¸ ȽTE? | ‘Did you see our friends?’ |
 | HA¸E. ŦOLEṈ ¸E TŦE SṈELÁNET. | ‘Yes. They went up in the hills.’ |
| ISTÁ ĆSÁLEḴEṈ YÁ¸. | ‘Let’s go follow.’ |
| EWE. ÁN¸ U¸ MÁLE¸ȻEȽ TŦE NE SȾOLEM¸. | ‘No. My bones are really hurt.’ |
| 41.2A. Each of the following SENĆOŦEN words takes the LE or ¸LE infix plural. Make each plural and give its meaning. 1. NOS ‘fat’ 2. SOȽ ‘road, door’ 3. Ś₭O¸ȻEȽ ‘canoe partner’ 4. OX̱ ‘go there’ 5. SĆÁ¸ĆE¸ ‘friend’ | 41.2B. Each of these is a LE or ¸LE plural. Give the nonplural for each. 1. WÁ¸LEĆ ‘clocks’ 2. ĆȻÁLE¸ ‘they own’ 3. NÁ¸LEJ ‘they’re different’ |