On Mon, 21 Apr 2003 01:41:01 +0200 (MET DST), Jens Elmegaard Rasmussen
<
jer@...> wrote:
>Without expressing a wish ot be quoted as endorsing each reconstruction, I
>will say that in my understanding they are both thematic. The old
>interchange -e-/-o- is quite well preserved in pronouns, and I just do not
>understand the unwillingness to accept a stem *te- alongside *to-. That
>makes a problem out of Goth. gen.sg. this, and certainly also out of a
>paradimg like OPruss. stas, stan, sta, gen. stesse, dat. stesmu, just like
>German das, des, dem; and Hom.Gk. has gen. teo; and the Tocharian
>palatalized forms would be unexplained if there were no front-vowel forms
>in the paradigm.
OK, it's relatively marginal (so is *k^o-, found only in Hittite,
AFAIK), but I guess I have nothing against a stem *te-. There seems
to be no trace of an Acc. +tim, however.
>The i-forms are rather plainly originally enclitics.
I see no evidence for that.
>For reasons I do not understand it appears that *kWi-/*kWe- means 'what',
>while stable *kWo- means 'who'. I hope this is secondary and will some day
>be explained. With the interrogative, therefore, I do accept two types,
>although I am not completely sure how they were in detail, but I certainly
>would not call any of them athematic, for both have stems ending in a
>vowel.
My analysis is different. A pronoun like *kWis, *kWesyo has a stem
*kW- and "endings" *-is, *-esyo [I quote "endings" because this is
plainly the pronoun *is, suffixed]. The stem of *kWos, *kWosyo does
end in a vowel, and the paradigm is virtually identical to that of the
nominal o-stems. In fact, the structure of these "thematic" forms is
in origin the same as that of the "athematic" pronominal forms, except
for the stem-final vowel.
N *kW + *íz -> *kWis
A *kW + *ím -> *kWim
G *kW + *ásy(a:) -> *kWesyo
DL *kW + *á(i) -> *kWé(sm)i
AbI *kW + *át -> *kWéh1
N *kWá + *iz -> *kWós
A *kWá + *im -> *kWóm
G *kWá + *asy(á:) -> *kWósyó
DL *kWá + *a(i) -> *kWói
AbI *kWá + *at -> *kWóh1
This requires a special soundlaw that eliminates vocalic *i after (or
before) a _stressed_ thematic vowel. Besides the o-stems and
"thematic" pronouns, the same phenomenon is seen in the reduplicated
aorist and the ah2-stems.
The reduplicated aorist is the aorist of the causative. If we analyze
the causative as:
1) o-grade/lengthened root [*R + root] +
2) *(p)éi- +
3) thematic vowel +
4) endings,
the reduplicated aorist has the structure:
0) lengthened reduplication syllable [*R + redupl.] +
1) zero grade / e-grade root +
2) *(p)-
3) stressed thematic vowel
4) endings
The expected *i (zero grade of *(p)éi-) is absent before the stressed
thematic vowel.
In the ah2-stem feminines, the *i of the athematic feminine suffix
*ih2 is also absorbed by the stressed thematic vowel:
N *-á-ih2 -> *-eh2 -> -a:
A *-á-ih2-m -> *-eh2m -> -a:m
V *'-a-ih2 -> *-oi(h2) -> -oi (skt. -e:)
G *-a-íh2-a:s -> *-o-yáh2-os -> -oya:s ~ -a:s (Skt. -a:ya:s)
L *-a-íh2-a(i) -> *-o-yáh2-i -> -oya:i ~ -a:i (Skt. -a:ya:i)
D *-a-ih2-á(i) -> *-o-yh2-ái (-> Arm. -oj^)
A *-a-íh2-a:t -> *-o-yáh2-ot
I *-a-yh2-áh1 -> *-o-yh2-áh1 -> -oyyá: ~ -a: (Skt. -aya:, OCS
-ojoN)
I now realize that the same rule also explains the peculiar
alternation *i ~ *e in the pronoun *is. The root was *i, to which the
nominative and accusative endings were directly appended:
*í-za > *íz > *í&s > *ís
*í-ma > *ím > *í&m > *ím
The "absolutive" had the ending *-a:
*í-a > *í-(y)a > *íy > *&'y > *éy
(This is the origin of Skt. ay-am)
The oblique endings were based on the absolutive, but there the accent
fell on the "thematic" *á, causing the loss of *i in the oblique:
G *i-á-si > *ésy + o
DL *i-á-(?)a > *é + (sm)i
AI *i-á-ta > *ét > *éh1
So now I have the "thematic" pronouns, the o-stems, the a:-stems, the
reduplicated aorist and the *is ~ *esyo alternation neatly regularized
by a single soundlaw (*i > 0 / {_é= | é=_}, where = is "morpheme
break"). Additionally, the soundlaw may perhaps explain other cases
where *i appears to be the "zero grade" of the thematic vowel, as
discussed by Jens in his 1988 article "Indo-European ablaut -i ~
-e-/-o-".
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...