On 2006-09-11 19:06, pielewe wrote:
> Well, one of the pieces of evidence that tends to be dismissed
instead of discussed is the type "Sadko", which is indeclinable in
much of Slavic, hence looks like a case form that has been divorced
from its original paradigm. If it directly continues the Nsg in -o it
becomes completely unproblematic, if it is not, what is it and how do
we account for the fact that it is indeclinable? <
Why not a neuter ending, given the fact that the formation is
hypocoristic? This would immediately account for the unchanged acc.
and voc. forms. Then, hypocorisms have their own little quirks. There
are also Slavic masculine diminutives in -a, often alternating with -o
or *-U, as in OPol. Wojciech --> Wojta, Bronisa,d --> Sa,d ~ Se,da ~
Se,do. A "suffix" like those may have no proper etymology at all, cf.
Australian English -o (Robbo, milko, garbo, servo), which surely
doesn't prove that the regular reflex of PIE *-os is Aussie -o.
> Another type of example is ko-z^d-. <
_If_ (with due respect to Rozwadowski) the <ko-z^Ido> type is really
more archaic than <kU-z^Ido> (and not contaminated with the vocalism
of <kogo-z^Ido> etc.).
> There are several types of OCS examples that should by now have been
discussed exhaustively from a philological point of view but somehow
haven't. <
We can at least discuss them here as a stop-gap measure, can't we?
> The overall complexity of competing views is hardly ever assessed
and objectified, which sets up a bias in favour of views that are
common in handbooks purely because they are didactically convenient. <
I completely agree with you here, but Slavic studies are hardly
exceptional in this respect. I specialise in the history of English
and Germanic, and, believe me, "didactically convenient" fiction
dominates the handbooks in my field as well.
> I mean, I respect your view and I don't intend to argue against it
(particularly because you may recall I have introduced the hypothesis
that word-final *os yields -o only for the sake of the argument), but
yes, I do tend to think things are pretty bleak. <
Oh, well, please argue against my views by all means! I've often
changed my mind before after a good debate.
Piotr