On Sun, 20 Apr 2003 16:42:26 +0000, Glen Gordon
<
glengordon01@...> wrote:
>>There were several accentual types in PIE,
>
>Of course currently, beyond what I offer, there is no logical
>explanation to explain all of them at once. More likely, it involves
>more than one explanation to cover the wide possibilities. My
>solution covers the hystero- and protero-dynamic patterns
>(including also the "ultimate" pattern) all at once by the mere
>addition of a lost final vowel where appropriate.
If you're saying that at a very remote stage, before PIE, there was an
extra syllable, and that the final vowels were dropped, I agree.
But I guess that what you're saying is that there was an extra vowel
only where we have ultimate accent in PIE, and there was no extra
vowel when there is penultimate accent in PIE. Not only does this not
explain anything (it just shifts the problem), it is in fragrant
violation of Occam's razor. You are multiplying the entia! Your
solution requires every single PIE suffix (*-men, *-er, *-ter, etc.
etc.) to be split in two (*-men, *-mene, *-er, *-ere, *-ter, *-tere,
etc., etc.).
There *is* a simple and elegant solution to this problem... All
_root_ nouns and verbs have ultimate accent (penultimate at an earlier
stage with final vowels). _Compound_ stems can be accented on the
root (síx-teen) or on the suffix (six-téén). Some words (mostly
animates) are accented on the suffix (p&2-tér-) [HD], while most words
(not necessarily neuters) are accented on the root (h2ák-men-) [PD].
That's all.
The other types are messy but secondary, caused by accent shifts
related to the zero grade rule. A long vowel in the root drew the
accent back if it was on the suffix/ending, but the long vowel itself
was shortened (acrostatic type). If the root vowel was short, but the
root syllable heavy, we get the amphidynamic type instead of the
proterodynamic. The peculiarities of the thematic vowel lead to
another kind of fixed-accent (mesostatic) type.
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...