Re: [tied] Re: Scythians, Zoroastrians, etc.

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 12586
Date: 2002-03-02

Things are not always as simple as we would like them to be. There is a lot of evidence that the biphonemic value of zeta was real enough.
 
(1) For the purpose of scansion zeta behaved like the clusters represented as psi /ps/ or ksi /ks/, making a preceding short-vowelled syllable heavy "by position".
 
(2) There was no compensatory lengthening in the sequence -Vn- denasalised before <z> in Attic, e.g. plazo: < *planzo: < *plangjo:, which suggests that the first syllable was closed: [plaz.do:].
 
(3) The variant spelling <sd> (<sdeus>, <sdugo->, <eikasdo:> etc.) or <sz> (i.e. sigma + zeta) was common in dialectal orthographies and in inscriptions. Alexandrian grammarians used <-sd-> regularly in present-tense verb forms (<elpisdo:> etc.).
 
(4) Dialectal developments of intervocalic zeta produced something spelt <-dd-> (or -tt-), e.g. <trapedda> for <trapeza>. As a result, verbs like <ko:mazo:> have alternative spellings like <ko:masdo:> and <ko:maddo:>.
 
(5) In many cases zeta reflects etymological *sd, e.g. hizo: < *si-sd-o:, ozos < *osdo-s.
 
Historical scenario:
 
Zeta reflects inherited *sd [*zd] fell together with the clusters *dj (also < *j-), *gj and *gWj-. Some kind of palatal fricative probably developed in the latter sequences at first. It was then dispalatalised, becoming a coronal fricative, and the whole sequence underwent assimilatory "smoothing" (cf. *tj/*tHj/*kj/*kHj > *tç > *tþ > tt ~ ss and *pj > *pç > *pþ > *pt). I would suggest that *dj/*gj/*gWj developed into something like *dð > *ðð, merging with *zd > *zð ~ ðð. The actual phonetic value of zeta may have varied dialectally between [zð] and [ðð], interpreted as biphonemic /sd/ and /dd/, respectively, hence the variant spellings. Note that Greek voiced stops tended to be lenited into continuants already in late Classical Greek: b, d, g > v, , G/j. The shift was concealed by the conservative Classical spelling, but there is local graphemic evidence for d > ð as early as the 6th/5th c. BC.
 
In Byzantine Greek [zð] changed into (intervocalic) [-zz-] or (initial) [z-]. The intervocalic geminate was eventually simplified, giving us the modern state of affairs.
 
Piotr
 
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: wtsdv
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, March 02, 2002 7:15 AM
Subject: [tied] Re: Scythians, Zoroastrians, etc.

--- In cybalist@......, Andrei Markine <andrey@......> wrote:
> Was it [zd] or [dz]?

I've been wondering about this also.  My Greek Grammar gives [zd] as the value of zeta, but much of what I read in I.E. studies seems to imply that it was an affricate and a single phoneme.

David