From: Sergejus Tarasovas
Message: 15992
Date: 2002-10-07
>> >> I have notes that say that Saussure's law applies synchronically. Is
this wrong? I certainly can't reconcile it with the dative dual and
plural endings (o-stems -ám, áms and a:-stems óm, óms) where rãtas
forms rãtam, rãtams, not *ratám, *ratáms, and similarly
rankà forms ran~kom, ran~koms .>> I'm not sure about dual (dual forms ha[ve] disappeared from Lithuanian toward the middle of this century except some pronouns, so didn't bother to find out :), but I'll do that in some hours if nobody outruns me), but -áms and -óms are historical -ãmus and -õmus (the forms are registered in Old LIthuanian texts), with normal contractional metatony.I'm sorry, I missed the point of your question. I must admit I'm not sure I completely understand what the statement "Saussure's law applies synchronically" would mean, since even in most cases when it really applies the morphemes triggering retraction have _historical_ acute only, and synchronically have a syllable with a short nucleus, not bearing any pitch accent at all.Sergei