Re: Neptune, Poseidon, Danu, etc.

Suppose the compound *dems-pot- is so old that it predates the
conversion of stress into e/o and hence the *dem-s part got its /e/
for /o/ by being unstressed within the compound?

Torsten

--- In cybalist@..., "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...> wrote:
> As I said I don't quite understand it myself. However, this Gen.sg.
*dem-s is quite well substantiated (Avestan da:N 'of the house').
Nasal (and heteroclitic) stems in general show similar alternations
at least in some branches (*-o:n/-r/-l, *-en-s), cf. also Avestan
xWa:N 'of the sun' < *s(h2)wen-s. PIE *do:m is not necessarily
inanimate (gramatically, that is) -- an asigmatic nominative is to be
expected in this case.
>
> The -o-/-e- alternation originally reflected pre-PIE stress
contrasts, but by PIE times it had acquired morphological functions
of its own, quite independent of stress patterns. The form *dem-s
is "late" in the sense that it must have been formed after the period
of stress-based vowel reductions but "early" in the sense that it
reflects an old consonantal stem (irregular already in PIE) and is
more archaic than thematised *dom-o-. As for thematisation itself, it
hardly needs accounting for, being the simplest and most productive
method of regularising morphologically "difficult" nouns.
>
> Piotr
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Sergejus Tarasovas
> To: cybalist@...
> Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2001 10:11 AM
> Subject: Re: [tied] Neptune, Poseidon, Danu, etc.
>
>
> --- In cybalist@..., "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...> wrote:
>
> > One IE reconstruction of the "house" word is a consonantal stem
declined like this: Nom.sg. *do:m, Gen.sg. dem-s (the o-stem form
*domos is supposed to be younger).
>
> Is there a plausible (or at least consistent) explanation of the
ablaut in that specific case? Stress seems not to help, laryngeals as
well. Again, does the consonantal stem indicate a former inactive
class? If so, why thematized and converted to active -> masculine?