Re: [tied] Re: IE Thematic Vowel Rule

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rob" <magwich78@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, August 07, 2005 12:50 PM
Subject: [tied] Re: IE Thematic Vowel Rule


--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "elmeras2000" <jer@...> wrote:
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Rob" <magwich78@...> wrote:
>

<snip>

Allow me to do a thought-experiment here. Let's pick a secure IE word -
- *ágro- 'field' < *xégro- (I consider the *e to be phonemic, but not
phonetic). If the Ablauting vowel began as a central vowel, such
as /a/, then an even earlier form would've been *xágra-. With
lengthening of word-final vowels, we'd get *xágra:-. If the vowel
remained long when case-endings were added, then we'd have *xágra:s,
*xágra:m, etc. A sound-change whereby /a:/ > /o:/ > /o/ would be
sufficient to produce the "thematic" declension as we believe it to be,
based on the comparative evidence. In that case, there would probably
be no need for a separate phoneme /z/.

However, if the stem-final vowel was shortened when case-endings were
added, then we'd have *xágras, *xágram, etc. With this situation, it
is not as easy to attribute the vowel quality to purely vocalic sound-
changes. So a phoneme or allophone /z/ may be necessary here.

The question, however, is why some IE nouns have stems in vowels and
some do not. Were the different categories formed at different times?
Are some borrowings and others are not?

- Rob

***
Patrick:

As *Há(:)g^mN- shows, adding -*ro to *Há(:)g^ should result in *Há(:)g^R-
not **Há(:)g^-ro-s.

This -*ro is not the comparative -*ró but an element meaning 'part'; the
'field' is the 'part' of the property which is set aside for plowing.

***