--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Mate Kapovic" <mkapovic@...>
wrote:
> Well, I would say that evidence is contradictory. Germanic & Vedic
point to
> one thing and Greek to another.
The Greek evidence is in itself contradictory, since mé:te:r does
not agree with me:téra, me:trós, me:trí. So, since the latter forms
agree perfectly with the oxytone paradigm of Vedic and Germanic,
that structure would seem to deserve a status of preference,
provided the barytone form of the nom. and voc. can be accounted
for. The IE recessive accent of the vocative offers a fine
explanation. This leaves the non-barytone forms of Greek and the
forms of Vedic and Germanic as in all probability authentic reflexes
of the PIE form of the lexeme. Due to the existence of Hirt's law
the Balto-Slavic forms could reflect any preform and so are not
diagnostic. Then, with the weight of the preference for IE
oxytonesis arrived at, the BSl. forms would in fact seem to reflect
the working of Hirt's law.
There is no serious evidence supporting IE barytonesis in 'mother'.
So, if the vowel grade would make one assume that, any influence
from 'father' on the accent would rather seem to have occurred
before the dissolution of PIE than after it.
Jens