Re: [tied] Bader's article on *-os(y)o

On Tue, 18 May 2004 22:40:08 +0000, Rob
<magwich78@...> wrote:

>It seems to me that athematic nouns are from words that did not end
>in vowels (or perhaps only short vowels), while thematic nouns did
>end in vowels (or perhaps long vowels).

That doesn't explain why some roots are declined both
thematically and athematically (e.g. *weiks, *wik- ~
*woikos).

>We know that PIE never had
>an accent scheme that was fixed on the first syllable of a word, due
>to the abundance of initial clusters in the language. Probably,
>then, it had a regular accent scheme on the penultimate syllable of
>every word, as you posit.

There is a difference between root nouns and composite
nouns. Root nouns are always accented on the final syllable
(perhaps the penultimate at an earlier stage). Composite
nouns come in two basic varieties: proterodynamic (PD), with
accent on the stem in the strong cases, on the suffix in the
weak cases; and hysterodynamic (HD), with accent on the
suffix in the strong cases, on the desinence in the weak
cases. A third type are the collectives, with accent and
lengthening of the vowel of the suffix.

>Root: k-w-n or kW-n 'dog'
>(Here 'a' stands for a vowel of unknown quality)
>
>Earliest absolutive: kawána / kWána > kWán@ > kWán(@)
>Earliest genitive: kWán(@) sa > kWán(@)-sa > kWán-sa > kWáns@ > kWans
>
>Genitive gains ergative (later nominative) force.
>New ergative > nominative: kWans
>New genitive: kWan ás@ (< *a-sa) > kWan-ás@ > kW@...@ > kW@...:s >
>kuná:s
>
>The new genitive was formed from a pronominal element plus the old
>genitive marker -- 'the horse its rider' instead of 'the horse's
>rider.'
>
>As evidence I offer the compound *dems-potis 'house's lord / lord of
>the house' > Gk. dêspotês.
>
>/a:/ > /o/, /a/ > /o/ preceding a nasal.
>kWans > kWons, kuná:s > kunós
>
>Other cases:
>1. Accusative: kWán(@) ma > kWan-ma > kWánm@ > kWánm. > kWónm.
>2. Dative: kWán(@) áy@ > kWan-áy@ > kW@... > kunéi
>
>It seems that a rule can come out of this: If the suffix is
>monomoraic, no change in stress-accent occurs; otherwise, the accent
>shifts one syllable to the right.

Sure, that is the rule: a vocalic desinence causes an accent
shift. The only complicating factor is that a pretonic long
/a:/ gets shortened but attracts the accent (Jens' initial
stress rule). For instance:

*dá:m "house" > dóm-
G. *da:m-ás > *dámas > *déms.

The "dog" word seems to be a "collective", where the long
suffix vowel also causes stress retraction:

nom. *k^awá:n-z > *k^wó:n
acc. *k^awá:n-m > *k^wónm.
gen. *k^awa:n-ás > *k^wéns ~ *k^úns (regularized to *kúnos =
Ved. s'únas).

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...