Re: Russian v(o), s(o) & k(o) (was: IE Thematic Vowel Rule)

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham"
<richard.wordingham@...> wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Andy Howey <andyandmae_howey@...>

wrote:

> > When I was learning Russian, the instructors told us that the "o"
> after single consonantal prepositions and before consonant clusters
> was simply added to break up a difficult-to-pronounce cluster. I
> doubt that any of my instructors were linguists, most being refugees
> who got the language instructor jobs by virtue of being native
> speakers, so I don't know if there is any historical significance to
> the "o".
>
> It's the form the hard jer takes when it can't be dropped. The
> difficulties lie in formulating when it can't be dropped, or in these
> particular cases, what the 'difficult-to-pronounce' clusters are.
>

Sounds exactly like PIE ablaut. I pointed out to my instructor that
the preposition seemed to gain what the pronoun lost (obo mné, o
tebyé), and he hadn't even noticed. The point here is that there is a
sequence of syllables with half-dead vowels, jers, and some die, and
some are resuscitated, according to some rule. It reminds me of
Skt. imperf.

ábharam
ábhar
ábhar

or Latin

fero:
fers
fert

which I'm told, but don't believe, are peripheral phenomena: something
disappears before unvoiced which survives before nasal.


Torsten¨