Re: IE Thematic Vowel Rule

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

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...>
> wrote:
>
>
> > ko mné "to me"
> > k tebyé "to thee"
> > k sebyé "to him/her/it (refl.)"
> >
> > so mnóy "with me"
> > s tobóy "with thee"
> > s sobóy "with him/her/it (refl.)"
> >
> > In other words, the half-dead vowel U ('jer' from PIE /u/)
> becomes /o/
> > before nasal, and zero before unvoiced.
> >
> > Could we from this example infer something about the fate of
> > PIE 'intermediate' schwa from /a/, the ablaut vowel?
>
> No, the Russian distribution is not vo/ko/so before nasal, v/k/s
> elsewhere. I'm not quite sure exactly how it is, but it certainly
> takes a cluster to bring out the o. And the reappearing nasal of
> forms like s nim 'with him', s nimi 'with them' does not produce -

o-.

That's from sUn im etc. There's no jer there to be converted to full
vowel or not.

I better rephrase:
I think the first vowel of the pronoun was a jer too

sU mUnóy > so mnóy
sU tUbóy > s tobóy
(vel sim.!)

so it's not a question of an original cluster.

> More to the point, the distribution seen in the IE thematic vowel

is

> not one of +/- nasal either.
>

As you might have noticed, my description +nasal vs. -voiced doesn't
cover the whole range. I was being cautious. +voiced vs. -voiced
would describe the Russian phenomenon too, and you get rid of the
offending reference to 'nasal'.

Could anyone who knows the history of this phenomenon please help
with the details?


Torsten