In such Greek forms [...] as 'pepomph-a' 'I have sent', as contrasted with 'pemp-o' 'I send', with its trebly symbolic change of the radical element (reduplicating 'pe-', change of 'e' to 'o', change of 'p' to 'ph'), it is rather the peculiar alternation of the first person singular '-a' of the perfect with the '-o' of the present that gives them their inflective cast.
- Sapir (1921), a pag.131

Nothing could be more erroneous than to imagine that symbolic changes of the radical element, even for the expression of such abstract concepts as those of number and tense, is always associated with the syntactic peculiarities of an inflective language.
- Sapir (1921), a pag.131