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)

Hysterodynamic of course... Sorry...

>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.