On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 11:51:19 +0000, Glen Gordon <
glengordon01@...>
wrote:
>Miguel:
>>Actually *-bVt- > *-pt-
>
>Still, assumption is assumption. It's illogical.
>
>
>>Nonsense: the vowel is observed allright in the source language.
>
>Nonsense on your part. While the second syllable is present in
>Semitic, it's just NOT found in IE. Further, you're not explaining why
>the vowel MUST be there in the first place. You're merely
>re-emphasizing empty assertions. Validate your assumption with
>reasonable arguements within IE or pre-IE.
I've already done so, but here:
We know the Semitic form was *sab`atu-. The Semitic accent may have been
*sáb`atu- or *sab`átu-, I don't know. It is sáb`atu in Arabic, because the
first syllable is heavy, it is s&b`á:(h) in Hebrew, but then again Hebrew
has tendency to shift the accent forwards. The accentuation of Akkadian
sebettu(m) is unknown. In any case, all Semitic languages have two vowels
in the root part of the word, and if Indo-European at the stage where the
word was borrowed had strict accentuation rules of its own, the Semitic
accent is irrelevant anyway.
Since there are no Semitic forms *sab`t-u(m) or *sb`at-u(m) with vowel
deletion, the word must have been borrowed into PIE with three vowels in
it: *sVbVtVm. The borrowing can thus be safely placed _before_ or _during_
zero grade in PIE: *sVbVtVm > *séptm. > *septm.'
There are two possible scenarios: the word was borrowed from a Semitic
*sab(`)átum before/during the initial accent rule (the rule, due to Jens,
that retracts the accent to the first full vowel (*e or *o, in practice *e)
in the word, e.g. G.sg. *wedénos > *wédnos). In that case *sebétum >
*sébet&m > *séptm. regularly.
Alternatively, the word was borrowed from a Semitic *sáb(`)atum before or
after the initial accent rule, it doesn't matter, (but always before zero
grade stopped working), and we have *sébetum > *séptm. regularly.
The development *séptm. > *septm.' is posterior. I have no explanation for
it. I have nothing against analogy from *ok^tó:(w), I just don't think
it's a very strong argument. I would prefer something that explains in one
fell swoop all the other accent shifts (*wl.'kWos, etc.).
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...