Re: *a/*a: ablaut

From: Patrick Ryan
Message: 52868
Date: 2008-02-12

Maybe I am not understanding.

I do not understand the problem of

*wa:g^- + -*ró -> *wag^-ró; with retraction of stress-accent to root
syllable: *wág^-ro



Patrick


----- Original Message -----
From: "alexandru_mg3" <alexandru_mg3@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 1:17 PM
Subject: [tied] Re: *a/*a: ablaut


--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...> wrote:
>
> There are a number of PIE stems which present clear evidence for
*a/*a:
> ablaut, and in which the presence of an internal laryngeal is
unlikely
> or impossible. Roots with this ablaut typically distinguish
the "strong"
> grade *a: and the "weak" grade *a (though their distribution may be
> disturbed by analogy) but have no zero grade. Let me discuss a
> characteristic example:
>
> *wa(:)g^- 'break (hit, smash, etc.), get broken' is listed as *weh2g
(^)-
> in LIV, but the analysis of the vowel quality as due to laryngeal
> colouring is anything but satisfactory. A root like *//weh2g^//
could be
> expected to produce zero-grade derivatives with *uh2g^- and some o-
grade
> forms like perf. *we-woh2g^-e. No such forms are attested anywhere.
We
> have the Gk. present (*w)ágnu:mi 'I break' and perf. éa:ge 'is
broken' <
> *we-wá:g^-e, Skt. vájra- < *wág^-ro- 'thunderbolt' (a
substantivised
> adjective). Forms like *wag^- should not exist at all, as there is
no
> way they could be derived from any allomorph of *//weh2g^//. Such
> inconvenient forms, which LIV explains away, one by one,
as "analogical
> innovations", are found in several branches, while the expected
reflexes
> of *woh2g^- and *uh2g^- don't occur at all.
> Piotr



Not true: In Skt. vájra- < *weh2g^-ro- 'thunderbolt' => we have the
loss of laryngeals before mediae in Indo-Iranian (see Lubotsky 81)
=> see also Skt. pajrá

Lubotsky's article is available on line:
https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/dspace/bitstream/1887/2655/1/299_001.
pdf


Marius