Re: [tied] Slavic endings

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Andrew Jarrette <anjarrette@...>
wrote:

> What you say makes sense and sounds right. But there is a small
> question which I have with the pronominal-import theory: if *-os
> and *-om of the masc. nom. and acc. sg. should become *-U
> (unstressed *o before consonants), why would *o remain /o/ before
> *d -- why wouldn't it also become *-U?

The raising applies only before a final nasal (-m or -n) or a
sibilant (-s or -s^). As to -d, Kortlandt may well be correct in
thinking that *-d dropped early in Balto-Slavic (before Winter's
law), beacuse otherwise (depending on exactly which conditions
triggered or blocked Winter's law), we would have expected
lengthening of *-od to *-o:d.

> I can understand that a following nasal might raise /o/ to /u/, but
> why should following *-s raise /o/ to /u/?

Likely the raising applied when final -s and -s^ had already become -
h.

> If you say that the
> masculines developed *-U entirely from the accusative singular,
> whereas the masculine nominative singular *-os would have produced
> *-o like *-od, then why didn't neuters also develop *-U, and simply
> merge with the masculines like *medU did?

As I said, many neuters (those not having end-stress) did just that
in Slavic.

> Perhaps it has to do
> with *-od possibly being stressed, and *-os being unstressed, for
> the divergent vowel development (although wasn't *-os sometimes
> stressed as well?). Or is stressed vs. unstressed *-om another
> possible source for the distinction between *-U and *-o?

The facts about the stress are the following:

masc. nom. *-os could be stressed (mobile paradigm) or unstressed
(barytone paradigm). In both cases the result is (pre-Dybo's law)
Slavic unstressed -U.
masc. acc. *-om was always unstressed in Proto-Balto-Slavic. It gives
Slavic unstressed -U.
neuter NA. *-os (s-stems) was always unstressed. It gives Slavic
unstressed -o.
neuter NA. *-om (o-stems) could be stressed (peró-group) or
unstressed (dvòrU-group). If stressed, the result is Slavic stressed -
ó. If unstressed, the result is usually unstressed -U (and
transferral to the masculines), but it remains to be seen whether all
barytone words ending in -o (such as lê"to) were originally end-
stressed or not.

It can be added that in the verbal system, stressed *-ós (e.g. 1pl.
mobile -mós) and *-óm (e.g. 1sg. thematic aorist *-(s)óm) both give -
U (which was stressed before Ivs^ic''s law).

--
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal