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How do consonantal augments change verb stems in Australian Aboriginal languages?
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Australian Aboriginal languages
A discussion of the languages of Indigenous Australians.
In Australian Aboriginal languages, consonantal augments function as specific affixesâconsisting of single consonantsâthat are attached to monosyllabic verb stems. These augments serve to modify the stem, as seen in the reconstructed Proto-Australian form bu-* (meaning "hit" or "kill"), which becomes bu-m through the addition of the consonantal augment -m*.1