Summary of Athematic and a possible "Verner's Law" of Athematics

From: Glen Gordon
Message: 1964
Date: 2000-03-30

More for poor, tired Piotr to digest...

In summary, all verbs are thematic except for:

- imperfect verbs with extensions (*linkW-, *mers-, *bhind-)
- certain Semitic verbs borrowed between 6000-5000 BCE
(*es-, *ed-)
- derivatives of athematic nouns (*nekWt-)
- vowel- or diphthong-terminating verbs (*ei-, *kei-)
- perfect verbs (*weid-, *steh-)

Primary motivation for changing an athematic to thematic:
- small athematic class becomes part of the larger
thematic class to regularize conjugation

Primary motivation for changing a thematic to an athematic:
- misanalysis of thematic *CVCC- forms as *CVC- verbs plus
modal affix, verbs which are athematic

Primary motivation for accentuating the thematic vowel:
- regularization of accent to fixed position and
simplification of ablaut patterns of stem

Conclusions:
- accented thematics are not reconstructable for earlier stages
of IE. Verbs with ablaut and alternation of accent between
singular and plural can only be the most ancient since the
motivation for this phenomenon cannot be explained from the
perspective of common IE nor its later dialects. Accented
thematics are much more simplified in comparison, as we should
expect from newer forms
- thematic verbs and athematic verbs have intermixed, but the
original form of the variation can still be logically deduced
because only one direction of change can be applied best when
one understands the underlying motivation towards
simplification

Eg: *leikWeti > *leikWti (misanalysis)
BUT
*tekti > *teketi (regularization)

Also note that *teketi > *tekti is not possible
by misanalysis (verb **te- plus modal affix **-k-)
since such a verb is not a valid IE form. It is
also quite unmotivated for a thematic to become part
of the smaller athematic class unless
this latter class has become the overwhelming norm

- athematic verbs are caused not only by Semitic loanwords but
by derivation, whether by modal affixes or via athematic nouns
- verbs derived from modal affixes are part of the athematic
class because of an Old IE change that altered *CVCVC-
stems to CVCC-. The change is dated before Semitic influence
since loans like IE *nebhes- (Akkadian napis^tu "soul") are
unaffected.

Examples:
OIE *merec-/*merece "remember/(he) remembers"
MIE *merc-/*merc(e)
IE *mers-/*mers-t,*mers-ti

OIE *hWegWec/*hWegWet:em "eye (nom/acc)"
MIE *hWegW(e)c/*hWegWtem
IE *hWekWt-s/*hWekWtm

OIE *kerec/keret:em "heart (nom/acc)"
MIE *ker(e)c/*kert:em
IE *kert-s/*kerdm


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