From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 2623
Date: 2000-06-09
Some morphological functions of ablaut grades
IE ablaut (apophony) is not a single phenomenon but a complex bundle of different morphophonological processes. A full-length treatment of them would fill a hefty book (there are a number of such books, by the way). Here is just a brief outline or rather a list of characteristic examples.
In derivation, the ablaut grade was by and large detemined by the suffix. Thematic root-stressed action nouns and finally stressed agent nouns/adjectives in *-o- (derived from verbs) contained the o-grade of the root: *wogH-ó-s ‘vehicle’, *wógH-o-s ‘transport, conveyance’, *bHor-ó-s ‘carrier’, *bHór-o-s ‘(the act of) carrying’ (cf. *wegH-e-ti 'conveys', *bHer-e-ti 'carries, supports').
Neuters in *-os/*-es- contained the (stressed) e-grade of the root (note the vowel alternation in the suffix): *kléw-os, gen. *klew-es-os ‘fame’, *ném-os, gen. *nem-es-os ‘pasture’.
Stressed adjective/noun-forming suffixes like *-tó-, *-mó-, *-nó-, etc., were usually added to nil-grade roots: *klu-tó- ‘loud, famous’, *stx-tó-s ‘position, condition’, *gWHn-tó- ‘struck, killed’, *xw@...:x ‘wool’ (but in ‘light’ CVC stems e-grade was used instead: *pekW-tó- ‘cooked’).
The participial *-ont-, the femininising *-ix- and many other suffixes also demanded a nil-grade base: *(h)i-ont- ‘walking’ (from *(h)ei- ‘go’), *(h)d-ónts ‘tooth’, gen. *(h)d-nt-ós (from *(h)ed- ‘eat’), *sm-i:x ‘one [f.]’ (from *sem-).
Some types of adjectives (esp. those in *-jo- and *-o-, derived from nouns) were based on a ‘secondary’ e-grade or even a lengthened grade (a.k.a. vrddhi): *deiw-o- ‘divine’, *swe:kur-o- ‘belonging to the father-in-law’.
Root nouns in compounds had the nil grade form: *dru-gWHn-i:x ‘tree-slayer [= axe]’ (cf. *doru, gen. *drou-s, with an archaic stress-dependent ablaut pattern), *pxtr-gWHe:n, gen. *pxtr-gWHn-os ‘patricide’, *pxtr-gWHon-o- ‘father-killing’.
Simple thematic verbs usually had e-grade presents and aorists: *bHer-e-ti ‘carries’, *bHer-o-nti ‘they carry’, *(e) bHer-e-t ‘she/he (then) carried’.
More complex verb stems often involved affixes added to a nil-grade root form: *gWm-ske-ti ‘comes now and then’, *prk-ske-ti ‘asks’, *gi-gnh-e-ti ‘gives birth to’, *tn-neu-ti ‘stretches’.
There were also nil-grade aorists (*likW-é-t ‘she/he abandoned’, *likW-ó-nt ‘they abandoned’) and ‘sigmatic’ aorists with an *-s- suffix and probably a lengthened root vowel: *ne:i-s-t ‘he/she led’, *ne:i-s-nt.
Causative verbs in *-eje- contained the o-grade of the root: *mon-eje-ti ‘brings to mind, reminds’, *bHoudH-eje-ti ‘wakes up, causes to stay awake’
E-grade and nil grade alternated in the conjugation of athematic presents (the alternation was stress-conditioned): *gWHén-ti ‘kills’, *gWn-ónti ‘they kill’, *(h)és-ti ‘is’, *(h)s-ónti ‘they are’.
Similarly, o-grade and nil grade alternated in the perfect: *wóid-xa ‘I know’, *wid-mé ‘we know’, *le-lóikW-xa ‘I have abandoned’, *le-likW-mé ‘we have abandoned’.
Quantitative ablaut was common in consonantal noun stems:
Lengthened grade: *die:u-s ‘sky god’, *xne:r ‘man’, *kuo:n ‘dog’, *nepo:t-s ‘grandson’, *po:d-s [po:ts] ‘foot’ (nom. sg.)
Normal grade: *djew-es, *xner-es, *kwon-es, *nepot-es, *pod-es (nom. pl.); *kwon-m etc. (acc. sg.)
Nil grade (with stress on the ending): *diw-ós, *xnr-ós, *kun-ós, *nept-ós (gen. sg.); *nept-éi (dat. sg.), *nept-sú (loc.pl.), *nep-tóm (gen.pl.); in ‘light’ CVC stems nil grade was replaced by e-grade: *ped-ós, etc.
Piotr