Re: [tied] Re: Caland [was -m (-n)?]

On Tue, 25 Nov 2003 15:44:32 +0100 (MET), Jens Elmegaard Rasmussen
<jer@...> wrote:

>And it is not only in adjective stems we observe reductions
>of *-Ce/o- to *-e/o- (and further *-i-), we see something of the kind at
>the end of compounds too (*newo-g^nH3ó-s for **-g^nH3-tó-s).

Would you say that the variation *-ós ~ *-tós in (most) ordinals
illustrates the same phenomenon?

>Therefore, if an adjective stem *H2rg^-ró- 'bright, swift' when used as
>the first member of a compound is reduced to *H2[r]g^i- (Gk. argí-pous
>'swift-footed', Ved. rjí-s'van- 'having swift dogs', then this is not
>necessarily just a matter of mysterious replacement of one allomorph with
>another. It may be a simple event of sound change. For the first part of a
>compound is reduced anyway, and the reduction of a composite morpheme -Co-
>is plain -o- anyway, and the reduced form of -o- is -i- in a very old
>layer of this language anyway.

But what of the other half of the problem? The alternation r/m, for
instance, which (according to Collinge) was part of Caland's original
treatment (Avest. xrvi- vs. xru:ma-, xru:ra-, Av. tiGra- vs. Skt. tigma-).

If any *-Co- (or *-o-) will do as a source for *-i- in compounds (and
comparatives), then that's only a solution for half the problem. It does
not explain why *-mó- and *-ró- themselves alternate in these words (nor,
for instance, what the alternation of u-stem adjectives and ró-adjectives
is all about).

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...