Re: [cybalist] Narten Presents

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 2073
Date: 2000-04-09

I think I made a mistake in my response to Mark's query and Urban's answer about "Narten presents". The only convincing Hittite examples of "strong" *o (Hitt. a) vs. "weak" *e I could find are of hi-presents(no mi-presents):
 
sak-/sek- 'know'
 
sak-hi    sek-weni
sak-ti    sek-teni
sakk-i    sekk-antsi
 
As far as I remember, Jasanoff argues that o-grade presents like *mol(x)- 'grind', *konk- 'be suspended', etc., originally constituted the "*h2e-series" of presents with *o/*e or *o/zero ablaut (and that they are related to the perfect paradigm). I referred to this article:
 
Jasanoff, Jay H. 1992. "Reconstructing morphology: the role of o-grade in Hittite and Tocharian verb inflection". In: Edgar C. Polomé and Werner Winter (eds.). Reconstructing Languages and Cultures. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 129-156.
 
What is confusing about Hittite is that it also has "strong" e corresponding to "weak" a! This is because originally unstressed PIE *e could be reduced to a schwa-like vowel (*@) which became Hittite a.
 
ed-mi    ad-antsi    'eat' (1sg/3pl/part.)
es-mi    as-antsi    'be'
ses-mi   sas-antsi   'sleep'
ep-mi    app-antsi   'seize'
eku-mi   akuw-antsi  'drink'
 
Piotr