Re: [tied] Re: PIE genitive plural *-o:m, a possible analysis

From: Patrick Ryan
Message: 44431
Date: 2006-04-27

 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2006 11:06 AM
Subject: Re: [tied] Re: PIE genitive plural *-o:m, a possible analysis

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Patrick:
 
Like Torsten, I am very skeptical of any explanation which is made by appealing to "analogy".
 
"Analogy" is basically the idea that a form which is not to be expected by applying acknowledged rules has been mistakenly patterned after a different form which is expected. While I certainly concede that this is "possible", I doubt whether it is as common as many would propose. Furthermore, it cannot really be proved.
 
I would like to try to explain some derivatives of *wékW- by means of the assumptions I have detailed in previous postings.
 
If Piotr or anyone else feels that these assumptions are wrong, I would welcome the criticism so long as it is explanatory rather than categorical.
 
A common PIE suffix indicating 'quality' or 'state' is -*sA, which creates neuter substantives.
 
Combined directly with*wékW-, the rule calling for penultimate stress-accent, and deletion of stress-unaccented vowels, would produce *wékW-sØ.
 
-*sA could also be combined with the plural form, which was formed by shifting the stress-accent one position to the right: if done during the earliest stage, this would produce *ukWé-sØ; if done during the next earliest stage, this would produce *wokWé-sØ. During this stage, *é became *o when the stress-accent was removed.
 
After the significance of the thematic extension was forgotten (plurality), the stress-accent was retracted to the root to resume the (singular) penultimate stress-accent: *wékWo-sØ.
 
At a yet later stage (Beekes' third stage), *o could be stress-accented and not revert to *é but rather became *ó; from *wokWé-sØ, this would first yield *wókWo-sØ.  The next operation was that the stress-unaccented *o was deleted, producing compensatorily *wó:kWØ-sØ; but defining a rule for this deletion is problematical. I would be glad for any constructive suggestions on the formulation of this deletion rule.
 
In PIE (though not Indo-Iranian), _all_ lengthened vowels are compensatory for the loss of aspiration, a laryngeal, or any other consonant or vowel.
 
In connection with these forms, we should remember that the earliest PIE "genitive" was 'relational', i.e. -*yA, an inheritance from PAA; it survives as a PIE locative though, of course, some PIE-derived languages retained it.
 
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