Re: [tied] The Penultimate Accent Rule

From: Glen Gordon
Message: 10931
Date: 2001-11-03

First, I must apologize for the errors I made:
Error 1: The ancestor form of *bhraxte:r is
*beraxWe and not **berawe (I got
confused about the loss of uvularized
laryngeals in MidIE but I'm alright now)

Error 2: I meant to say *xawi- "bird",
but it ain't terribly important since
*x�wi- "sheep" will do as well.

>I would expect a rule about accent/stress to solve all problems
>related to accent/stress.

Gasp. This sentence disturbs me immensely.

Grimm's Law doesn't solve all problems of sound correspondances
between Germanic and other IE languages. Do we throw it away?
Hardly. What it is truely meant to do is not to be a linguistic
panacea but rather to illuminate upon a general pattern amidst
the static noise and in the most efficient manner possible.

This is exactly the function of the Penultimate Accent Rule. All
the PA rule needs in order to function is a replacement of lost
final vowels. If there is a more efficient way to regularize the
chaotic accent, be my guest.


>So the irregularity was just created recently out of nothing?

The irregularity of *pxte:r and *maxte:r was not created out of
nothing. It was created by analogy. These words are not isolates.
They are part of a larger system of kinship terminology. I'm
stating that *pxte:r, being derived from *pax- "feed, nourish"
and *-te:r [actor suffix], had been created in Late IE, long
after the loss of final vowels in Mid IE. The suffix *-te:r
itself has a long and tortured prehistory.

Now, since *pxte:r, *maxte:r, *bhraxte:r and *dhugxte:r all appear
to have the same *-xte:r suffix, it begs to reason that there has
been assimilatory processes at work here. Since we know
where *pxte:r REALLY comes from, it would appear that THIS word
is the source of the spread of an otherwise nonsensical and
unused suffix *-xte:r.

Here's how. As *pxte:r replaced whatever word came before it
for "father", it was apparently misanalysed as being a combination
of a nursery term for father, perhaps **(a)pa-, plus some strange
ending *-xte:r. Hence, by simple analogy...

MidIE Late IE
*ame **(a)ma- + *xte:r => *maxte:r
*beraxWe **bhrax- + *xte:r => *bhraxte:r
*deuk:e **dhug- + *xte:r => *dhugxte:r


>>So, your question is laced with an assumption that these words are
>>ancient.
>
>They are.

The individual components of *pxte:r are ancient (that is,
*pax- and *-te:r) but *pxte:r is not necessarily so. You'd be
best to stick to atomic roots like *k^wo:n to avoid logical
complications.


>Let me see if I have this straight: *k^w�:n dropped a final vowel,
>*h3�wei didn't. But why? If you don't give the why, nothing is
>explained!

I clearly gave the explanation: The careful replacement of final
vowels efficiently regularizes the otherwise irregular accent
system of IndoEuropean. Don't forget the accent differences
between singular and plural in nonthematic verbs as well...
Without the PA rule, the odd placement of accent is entirely
inexplicable:

*�sti/*?s�nti < MIE *es/*es�ne

Resistance is futile. Just accept it and move on.

- love gLeN


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