From: Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
Message: 54006
Date: 2008-02-22
>On 2008-02-22 07:43, Miguel Carrasquer Vidal wrote:That might work (not for *dwi-, though), I'll think about
>
>> Yes. What I have trouble with is seeing this as the result
>> of a phonetic development (soundlaw). The thematic vowel is
>> /e/ before unvoiced (including final) and /o/ before voiced,
>> independent of the stress. We have o-stems stressed on the
>> root as well as on the thematic vowel, both in the nominal
>> and verbal systems (*bhóros, *bhorós; *bhére-, tudé-). If
>> the thematic vowel is e/o when unstressed (as in *bhór-o-s,
>> *bhér-e-ti), what room is there for unstressed -i-? There is
>> only the possibility that unstressed thematic vowels which
>> appear as e/o were originally stressed, and had vr.ddhi of
>> the root vowel (which caused the accent to shift back): a
>> form like *bhér-e- would then come from original **bha:r-á-.
>> I believe that is indeed the explanation for barytone
>> e-grade thematic forms. But if we apply this rule
>> consistently, it seems as if the whole basis for unstressed
>> thematic vowels falls away: at that pre-stage of PIE, the
>> definition of the thematic vowel would have included
>> carrying the stress.
>
>I'd prefer a solution which would also account for the distribution of
>*e and *i in the reduplication syllable. We have *sí-sd-e/o-,
>*g^í-g^n(h1)-e/o-, etc., with and *i that _must_ be somehow explained
>phonetically. It's quite obvious that the stress was originally on the
>thematic vowel (LIV and many authors even reconstruct the PIE stem as
>*si-sd-é/ó-, against whatever evidence there is), and that there was a
>time when the reduplicated stem was something like **s&-s&d-é-, with the
>first reduced vowel two syllables away from the location of stress. I
>imagine the reduction of *e/o to *i in compounds to have been something
>similar: at some "early PIE" stage predating the retraction of the
>accent to pretonic full vowels, stress was already initial in some major
>types of compounds, so the second element in the *kóm-moini- type became
>destressed, which resulted in the phonetic weakening of the thematic
>vowel. The change of **bHe(:)r-é- to *bHér-e- is more recent (as is
>**si-sd-é- > *sí-sd-e-), which is why the thematic vowel retains its
>full quality.