Re: [tied] Laryngeal theory as an unnatural

Miguel,

While many of your examples support the theory, some look questionable to me. *h1dont-, for example, clearly had the oblique stem *h1dn.t-, unambiguously attested in groups as far apart as Indo-Iranian and Germanic (or Celtic), while the alleged alternation *h1don- ~ *h1dent- does not seem to me to be supported by any real data. Do you regard oblique allomorphs like *dreu- ~ *dru- (from *doru), *h2jeu- ~ h2ju- (from *h2oju), etc., as analogical? Analogical to what? If you accept the limited evidence for *sm- and *pk^w- as oblique stems, why reject some _better_ attested patterns?

Piotr

----- Original Message -----
From: "Miguel Carrasquer" <mcv@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2003 9:33 AM
Subject: Re: [tied] Laryngeal theory as an unnatural



Rather than proposing arbitrary exeptions to the zero-grade rule, it
seems to me that the preservation of *e in the oblique root can be
directly linked to presence of *o in the strong cases. We have
oblique *ped- because of strong *pod- "foot". Likewise *g^onu obl.
*g^enw- "knee", *dom- obl. *dem- "house", *wodr obl. *wedn- "water",
*nokWt- obl. *nekWt- "night", *h2orln- obl. *h2arln- "eagle, bird",
*h2ostHi obl. *h2astHn- "bone", *doru obl. *derwos "tree", etc. The
same when the accent falls on the second syllable: *dhg^hom- ~
*dhghem- "earth", *ghyom- ~ *ghyem- "winter", *h1dont- ~ *h1dent-
"tooth", *udor-, *uden- "water".

When the vowel of the strong stem is *e, the oblique has zero: *sem-
obl. *sm- "one", *pek^-u obl. *pk^w- "cattle", *h2akmon- obl.
*&2k^men- "stone", *g^heimon- obl. *g^himen- "winter", *pah2wr, obl.
*ph2wen- "fire", *melit obl. *mlit- "honey"; with final accent:
*p&2ter- obl. p&2tr-, *h2ner-, obl. *&2nr- "man", etc.

The conclusion is than that we have Ablaut *e ~ 0 besides Ablaut *o ~
*e. This can be explained as earlier stressed **a ~ unstressed *&
besides stressed *a: ~ unstressed *a.