Re: [tied] Re: IE lexical accent

On Wed, 21 Jul 2004 enlil@... wrote:

> I cited MIE forms:
> >> *dweis-ti < *t:wéisa-ta (antepenultimate)
> >> *dwis-énti < *t:wais-éna-ta (antepenultimate)
>
> Jens:
> > Okay: In what sense is "(ante)penultimate" the formulation of something
> > regular? Why is there no vowel in the slot *d_w- (your "*t:w-")
>
> Because there supposed to be. I made an error because I had my mind
> on eLIE instead of MIE. So *t:awéisa-ta, yes. Of course you're correct
> here.
>
> As for how the (ante)penultimate accentuation is regular and predictable,
> it is predictably antepenultimate whenever endings are in origin
> demonstratives or when they are markers of plurality, otherwise the
> accent is penultimate.

That sounds like something you could do better.

You are in a way saying that all forms have penultimate accent if
postposed demonstratives and plural markers are disregarded. However, that
looks precisely wrong. In the more elaborate endings the accent plainly
moves to the right, not to the left. Why are you saying the opposite?

> Since markers of number are only used in nominative and accusative case
> forms, we can succinctly state that only strong case forms amongst nouns
> contain antepenultimate accent, otherwise the accent is penultimate.

There are plural markers in the dat.pl., ins.pl., and loc.pl. also.
There are also dual markers contained in the corresponding endings of the
dual.

>
> In verbs, the 3ps and 3pp are antepenultimate because of the demonstrative
> *-ta attached to those forms while the other persons, being older, reflect
> penultimate accentuation. Now, the perfect forms happen to have an
> antepenultimate accent (as with *wait:a-he > *woidxe) and since *-e is
> probably demonstrative in origin, I have to think about how old these
> perfect endings really are now...

Hey man, the perfect was your point of departure. Are you chickenin' out
and storing the perfect away as another mysterious innovation made in the
very near past which is incomprehensible to your analytic skills which can
only be bothered with the real challenges of the very distant past?

Jens