Re: [tied] Mid IE Phonology

From: Glen Gordon
Message: 9952
Date: 2001-10-02

Marc V:
>Thanks, Glen! Very interesting. This looks much more like a real
>language than the traditional phonological reconstructions (eg,
>Beekes). Could you please provide some examples?

I'm glad that *someone* appreciates my Mid IE madness ;) Examples?
As in vocabulary examples? Well, thanks to the topic regarding
"*o for stress, *e for not" in a topic a while back, I finally
realize that the major difference between IndoTyrrhenian and
Old IE, as well as Mid IE, is that nonpenultimate vowels are
all reduced to *� (schwa).

Thus, I now reconstruct IndoTyrrhenian *kWat:Wa "four" (which
now perfectly explains Tyrrhenian *xotta > Etruscan /huth/) and
Old IE *kW�tW�n (with final inanimate *-n). In Mid IE, after *-n
became *-r, *-�s (plural) was added to the stem producing
*kW�tW�r�s (with schwa in the first syllable and *a in the second
syllable where the accent lies).

The above is an example of paradigmatic vowel alternation. The
root inherits the original vocalism of IndoTyrrhenian *only* on
the stressed penultimate syllable. Most suffixes will alter the
placement of the accent and so the newly stressed vowel will
*always* be *a while all the unstressed vowels are reduced to schwa.

Hence:

oblique *k�w�n� "dog"
accusative *k�w�n�-m
genitive *k�w�n�-s�
partitive *k�w�n�-t�
plural *k�w�n�-s
genitive + partitive *k�w�n�-s�-t�


Another example (before heteroclitic *n/*r & thematization began):

oblique *w�t:�n "water"
accusative *w�t:�n
genitive *w�t:�n-s�
partitive *w�t:�n-t�
plural *w�t:�n-x�
genitive + partitive *w�t:�n-s�-t�

One more (nifty *s/*t alternation):

oblique *k�m�s "tens, twenty"
accusative *k�m�s
genitive *k�m�t-s�
partitive *k�m�t-t�
plural (redundant) *k�m�t-x�, *k�m�t-�i-x�
genitive + partitive *k�met-s�-t�


Need any more examples? Did that answer things? Anyone else think
I've goofed on the reconstruction thing?

-------------------------------------------------
Glen Gordon
Webdeveloper

home: http://glen_gordon.tripod.com
email: glengordon01@...
ph: (604)904.0320
-------------------------------------------------



>
>Marc
>


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