Re: [tied] Re: Monovocalism: sequel

>From: enlil@...
>
>Exu:
> > However, -i is (as far as I know) a final vowel when used as a tense
> > marker, and hence can not be a thematic vowel in the commonly used
> > sense.
>
>It depends on how you mean. It does appear that we have *i-stems as
>alternates of *o-stems (the 'thematic stems') for whatever reason. In
>that sense, *i-stems might be said to be another kind of thematic stem.
>Of course 'thematic stems' are being used untraditionally here in a
>sense more sensitive to the apparent etymology of these items and you're
>correct that thematic stems are normally of the alternating-*e/*o kind.

If you really want to change the meaning of commonly used vocabulary, I have
not objections. Hoever, it will make it very difficult to speak with you.

>However, considering that the thematic vocative in *-e would appear to
>show a reflex of the thematic vowel in final position, your criterion
>doesn't distinguish these *i-stems from the thematic stems alternating
>between *-e- and *-o-.

In this case, we were speaking of *-i as a marker for the present tense. It
has nothing to do with -i stems (which are nouns), but rather is a marker
for the present tense. Therefore, I can distinguish between them because I
can tell the difference between a nound and a verb. Or are you somehow
saying that the *-i present tense maker in verbal endings and the *-i
nominal roots are related?

Usiually, when speaking of -i stems, we are talking about nouns. When
speaking of the the tense marker -i, we are talking about a marker that
occurs after the personal marker in verbs, which probably has an entirely
different source.

Yes, you could call the -i stems (which do not behave thematically)
thematic. However, in order to do that, you would need to rewrite more than
one dictionary. In IE "thematic" vowels are usually the -e/o- vocalism that
can occur in some verbal categories. -i stems are nouns, not verbs, usually.

Exu

>
>= gLeN
>

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