Re: Meillet's law

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Mate Kapoviæ <mkapovic@...> wrote:

>
> On Uto, sijeèanj 16, 2007 10:19 pm, mcarrasquer reèe:
> > I have just signed up using my new e-mail address, and my reply
> > apparently didn't get through (yet?). I'll try again...

It did get through, to a wrong address though - I've found it in my e-
mail.

> > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "mandicdavid" <davidmandic@>
> > wrote:
> >>
> >> The 'laryngeal' must have existed at some time because the acute
> >> couldn't have evolved directly from the vowel length alone -
> > compare
> >> e.g. tra:vá, or m^e:so
> >
> > Vowel length alone can give rise to an acute: cf. <sla"va> (a.p.

a),

> > from the root *k^leu-, a formation completely analogical to that

of

> > <tra:vá>.
> >
> > The circumflex intonation in the first syllable of the word
> > for "grass" is due to the shape of the root *treuH-, with final
> > laryngeal.
> >
> > The syllabification was: *s'lá:-wa: (c.q. *s'ló:-wa: if the
> > lengthened grade was already of PIE age), with acute first

syllable,

> > versus *trá:u-?a: (c.q. *tró:u-?a:), with (falling) diphthong in

the

> > first syllable. In the first case, the word simply remained

barytone

> > <sla"va>; in the second one, the circumflex intonation remained

after

> > the loss of the laryngeal (c.q. the loss of hiatal

syllabification),

> > giving *trá~wa:, and after Dybo's law <tra:vá>.

But would the laryngeal have triggered lengthening if it had been a
part of the onset of the following syllable?
Wouldn't the development of this word in that case look like this:
trów-HeH2 > trów?a: > tráwa: > trová ?
Compare the difference between biti - bIjenU and the like.

> Of course, this is Miguel's theory... One other possibility would

be that

> these words belong to different periods - *sla´´va is older (cf.

Lith.

> ¹lóve.) and has an acute in vrdhhi while *tra:v'a is younger and the
> vrddhi is not an acute. There are both vrddhis with acute and

without it

> in Balto-Slavic.

What makes you think the Meillet's law operated in the 8th century?
Slavic populations had already been dispersed over the East of Europe
by that time (they had reached the Adriatic coast by the beginning of
the 7th ct); can a process like the Meillet's law spread over such a
vast territory?

I meant it may have been earlier. If the laryngeal existed at that
time (e.g. a glottal stop) in all syllables, and was subsequently
lost in unstressed position, it would have dissapeared in a.p. c
stems as well. In a.p. a, on the other hand, it would be preserved,
and eventually yield the rising tone.

However, as I've already written, I'm not quite sure of the
probability of this assumption.

David