--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...>
wrote:
> First it was neatly sorted with e-grade in the sg., zero-grade in
> the plural, then they modelled on each other and screwed up the
> paradigm. I thought paradigms went from disorder cause by
phonology
> to attempted order by analogy?
That's a respectable objection. I do not think it really applies
though, for the drift does indeed seem to be from disorder to an
increased amount of order in Latin too. The athematic verbs in *-mi
take on *-o: from the productive type, so we get *eyo: and *edo: .
For *esmi that is not so easy, for *eso: is the subjunctive >
future, ans so the way out seems to have been *eso:mi for the
indicative. Then there is an act of cleaning up the vowel grades. In
*somos *sonti, the zero-grade goes with the thematic form, but
*eso:mi and *stes are contray to this sense of order; that can be
remedied by changing them to *so:mi and *estes. The amount of order
achieved is considerable: Now all the semi-thematic verbs have
parallel alternations: sum sumus sunt go together, as do edo: edimus
edunt, volo: volumus volunt, and even fero: ferimus ferunt, also eo:
([?]*eyomos > *eomos > *eimus > i:mus) eunt - all being opposed to
(original or homemade) athematic forms as es est estis, e:s e:st
e:stis, vel (-> vi:s) vult vultis, fers fert fertis, i:s i:t i:tis.
This *has* been a change consisting in a reduction of disorder.
Jens