Re: [tied] 1sg. -o: [was Re: IE Thematic Vowel Rule]

On Fri, 12 Aug 2005 12:19:07 +0200, Piotr Gasiorowski
<gpiotr@...> wrote:

>Miguel Carrasquer wrote:
>
>> Neither your theory nor mine adequately explains why the
>> Lithuanian 1sg. ending -ù is formerly acute (*-uó before
>> Leskien's law). A double thematic *-oo(m) would inevitably
>> produce a circumflex, and so would my *-o:(u), judging by
>> akmuõ < *-o:(n), etc.
>>
>> As far as I can tell, only *-oh3 could have produced the
>> required acute.
>
>But what if the loss of *m was pre-PIE in the sense that at the time of
>the IE breakup a plain long *-o: was the only realisation of the ending?

I have doubts about whether the doubly thematic subjunctive
was pan-PIE or merely dialectal IE, let alone pre-PIE. If,
as Jens has stated, and I tend to agree with him, the
thematic present derives from the subjunctive, then the
thematic thematic subjunctive must be late. And its
composite nature was very much at the surface still (had it
existed in Balto-Slavic, I have no doubt it would have had
circumflex intonation).

>There would have been a contrast between this *-o: and later
>contractions, or forms retaining a final consonant (even if the latter
>could be dropped in sandhi). One could compare the 1sg. ending with the
>animate thematic nom./acc.du. *-o:, if from analogical *-o-e. The Baltic
>development is the same.

For me, that's another compelling reason to believe that the
dual ending does not in fact come from *-o-e.

Elsewhere, you said:

>But I find it difficult to believe there was an *h3 in the
>1sg. ending.

Well, I'm reluctant too. For starters, I don't see any
reason why the thematic endings should be based on anything
different than the athematic ones. In particular, I don't
like (becuase there is no motiovation for it) a connection
between the thematic present and the stative/perfect/middle
system.

However, if there *is* a connection, then *-h3 is perhaps
not completely unexpected. The vocalism of the 1sg. stative
points to *-ku in several branches of Southern Nostratic
(Semitic -ku, Kartvelian xw-, Elamite -(h)u, -k), so perhaps
PIE *-h2 (< *-ka) is the unexpected ending.

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...