Re: [tied] The "Mother" Problem

----- Original Message -----
From: "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 26, 2005 10:29 AM
Subject: Re: [tied] The "Mother" Problem


>
> On 05-01-24 09:57, petegray wrote:
>
> > As for the formation of the two stems, a theory I find interesting is
that
> > the -ter affix, used for things in opposed pairs, was added to the root
for
> > "looking after" (peH) which we find in Latin pa:sco and elsewhere.
Since it
> > was stressed, the root appeared as zero grade: pHter. This was then
> > re-interpreted as p-Hter, and the new "suffix" -Hter was added elsewhere
to
> > make the family words (ma-Hter, bhra-Hter, dhug-Hter, etc). But this
theory
> > doesn't explain why the accent was moved back.
>
> Well, stress retraction is expected if there is a full (non-high) vowel
> in the first syllable, as in *bHráh2t(o)r-. The same should have
> happened in *máh2t(o)r- as opposed to *ph2tér- and *dHugh2tér-. On the
> other hand, analogical levelling between 'father' and 'mother' (not
> extending to 'brother') would have been a natural process, so the
> end-stress of Indic and pre-Vernerian Germanic may be secondary, and the
> initial stress of Greek phonologically regular.

I agree. If Vedic and Germanic show no difference and Greek does - it is
easiest to assume that Greek is archaic and that IIr. and Germanic have
innovated. The analogy of *méh2te:r and *ph2té:r is easy to explain, but the
difference in Greek isn't if we start from *meh2té:r. No obvious reason
there why the accent should retract. Also, full grade in *meh2te:r, as well
as analogy with *bhréh2te:r point to the root stress. And we also know that
*-te:r stems did have static inflection (there are ample evidence of *´-trs
in IE languages, although not in *meh2te:r contrasting *ph2te:r) as well as
having proterodynamic one (*-trós) like in *ph2té:r or *dHugh2té:r.
Thus, we can conclude that it's at least a little bit hasty to reconstruct
PIE *meh2te:r with the end stress on the basis of Vedic ma:tá: and OHG
muoter as is often done.

Mate