Re: [j] v. [i]

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer <mcv@...> wrote:

> I was assuming that *-a:i always gave -ai (e.g. Dat. sg. a:-stems),

but now

> that you mention it, perhaps standard opinion is that *a:i and *ai

had

> already merged early on.

Sorry, I don't follow. Were you assuming *-a:i gave *-ai~ with a
circumflex? That's not what we observe in the verbal endings I
mentioned (a:-stems' D. sg. is quirky: the ending behaves like a
circumflexed one as to the Saussure's law, but the broken/acute tone
of Z^emaitian pronouns like [tâ:(i)] ~ [tá:(i)] points to an old
acute). Would you please elaborate on that marking the accents
explicitly?

> Any cases of *-a:i- > -ie-?

First of all, what would be the source for (Baltic) *-a:i-?
Tautosyllabic *-eh2i-?

Sergei