On Thu, 24 Jul 2003 14:19:13 +0000, elmeras2000 <
jer@...> wrote:
>--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer <mcv@...> wrote:
[I would like to reformulate my proposal as follows:
PIE *-eiom or *-eio~m. The latter gives Germanic *-eio:N = *-e:2o:N, which
should have given Gothic *-e:o: (or *-e:a) > -e: (cf. a:-stem Gpl. *-o:o:
or *-o:a > -o:), ON/OE *-e:a replaced by o-stem -a (Loewe: "nur ags. findet
sich noch vereinzeltes winiGa (für -ia), DeniGa."), OS/OHG *-e:o > *-eo (>
-io, -eo).]
>I find this much harder to believe. It is Kortlandt's idea and so
>presumably a given for Beekes.
I didn't know it was Kortlandt's idea. Beekes 1995 gives a vaguely similar
account [which I had forgotten about] on p. 117 (not very clear and
avoiding any specific mention of *e:2).
>It seems van Coetsem's theory of an a-
>umlauted variant of original /ei/ being PGmc, /e:2/ is based on the
>lone example of OHG stiega (Gm. Stiege) which is derived from
>*steigha:.
I don't think so. Van Bree's account ("Leerboek voor de historische
grammatica van het Nederlands", 1977) is as follows:
"Van Coetsem starts from a number of CGmc. vowel alternations in words
which are apparently etymologically connected:
e:/i/i: cf. Goth. he:r/himma (daga) / Du. hij (MDu. hi)
e:/i: cf. OHG sce:ro, Du. schier / Goth. skeirs
e:/ai cf. Germ. schief / Du. scheef with ê, ON skeifr
Therefore, in CGmc the alternation e:/i/i:/ai in etymologically connected
words was possible. Comparative linguistics shows that the last three go
back to PIE *i, *ei and *oi [bla bla bla] Van Coetsem therefore derives e:
as well as i: from ei and explains the e: by a-Umlaut. For his theory he
has the support of the parallel development of biphonemic eu to eo and iu
repectively.
An important part of the theory is the paradigmatic Ausgleich which led to
the early disappearance of the alternation i:/e:, e.g. in the 1st category
of the 1st Class [of strong verbs --mcv]: this [alternation] fell outside
of the Umlaut-system which otherwise only affected short vowels."
In other words, van Coetsem's theory is based on more than OHG stiega. In
all etymologically transparent case of Gmc. *e:2 (and it's true there
aren't many of them), there are Ablaut variants with Gmc i, i: or ai.
Given the completely parallel case of PIE *eu -> Gmc. *eo or *iu, Van
Coetsem's hypothesis is highly satisfactory: the PIE "diphthongs" were
biphonemic, and their early development in Germanic runs completely
parallel to that of the constituent elements separately. Therefore:
without with
PIE a-Umlaut a-Umlaut
*oi ai ae
*ou au ao
*ei ii = i: ee = e:2
*eu iu eo
Ausgleich subsequently completely eliminates *ae and *ao in favour of /ai/
and /au/, and almost all cases of *ee (e:2) in favour of /i:/, except in a
few isolated words such as Eng. here, we[*]; Du. schier, Fries; German
schief.
[*] parallel to Skt. vayam (*wei-om)? ON vér with analogical *-z. Cf.
Gmc. *ik (*eg^) ~ *ek(a) (*eg^-om).
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...