On Wed, 04 Jun 2003 09:08:02 +0200, Miguel Carrasquer <
mcv@...> wrote:
>The Lithuanian soft type
>(so-called third declension) adjectives have their plural in -iai (e.g.
>auksìniai). But isn't that just begging the question? How did *-j-oí
>become *-j-oi~?
The answer is of course that it wasn't *-joí that became *-jai~, but rather
*-ijoí by contraction (and thus circumflex accent) to *-jai~, just like in
the corresponding feminine adjectives *-ija:- > -e:~-, or in the i-stem
plurals *-iyes > -y(~)s.
So what we would expect in the masc. Npl. in Lithuanian is:
noun adjective
o-stems jo-stems -ijo-stems o/a:-stems jo-/ja:-stems -ijo/-ija:-stems
*-ì *-(j)ì *-iai~ *-ì *-(j)ì *-iai~
What we actually see is:
noun adjective
o-stems jo-stems -ijo-stems o/a:-stems jo-/ja:-stems -ijo/-ija:-stems
-ai~ -iai~ -iai~ -ì -ì -iai~
The unexpected forms (nominal o-stems [-as] and jo-stems [-ias]) are indeed
analogical after the *-ijo stems (-is [stressed -y~s], adj. -is/-e:).
Presumably the ending -(i)ai~ first spread to the jo-stems (making the -jo
and -ijo paradigms identical in the plural), and only later to the normal
o-stems.
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...