On Mon, 22 Aug 2005 15:07:24 -0700 (PDT), glen gordon
<
glengordon01@...> wrote:
>Miguel:
>> My explanation is that it comes from a lengthened
>> variant (in posttonic position) of the
>> dual ending *-iH > *-i:H > *-ye:H, with loss of the
>> laryngeal after the long vowel, and subsequent
>> shortening of unstressed *-e:.
>
>Now, in comparison, doesn't MIE *-ah > *-e by straight
>forward vocalization of 'syllabic *h1' to *e look so
>much simpler?
But it isn't. What is -iH?
One solution is simpler than two.
>That way we can hook it up to Proto-Steppe *-uk and
>thereby appease Jens' need to connect it with EA and
>Uralic plural suffixes in *-k.
You mean "dual".
I just thought of a way to explain the G. du. -o:s (as per
Avestan).
We know that the accusative and genitive were originally
[i.e. in Nostratic] not distinguished in the plural and
dual: Semitic A/G pl. -a:ti vs. N -a:tu, Uralic A/G. pl. -j
vs. N. -t).
In IE, the distinction was reintroduced by different means:
in the plural, the athematic acc.pl. *-abhi > *-Vm (PD
*'-om, HD *-ém, ST *'-m) was fixed in its zero grade form,
and the plural marker *-sW was added (*-m-sW > *-ns), while
the genitive plural was fixed as PD *-om, without the plural
marker. In the thematic declension, athematic *-m was added
to oblique thematic *-oj, resulting in acc.pl. *-oj-m-Sw >
*-o:ns and gen.pl. *-oj-m > *-o~m.
In the dual, the genitive must also have been identical to
the accusative (which also merged with the nominative) [nom.
*-iku > PD *-'ye(:h3), HD *-íh3, ST *'-ih3; acc/gen. PD
*-'ye(:h3), HD *-íh3, ST *'-ih3]. The genitive -o:s is then
the result of generalization of the PD form *-(y)e + the
genitive sg. ending *-os > *-(y)õs.
In the dual thematic, we have forms with and without
absorption of the -i- of the dual suffix -ih(3/1) by the
thematic vowel, just as in the thematic feminine *-a-h2 ~
*-o-y(e)h2 [e.g. Skt. N. -a-h2 > -a:, A. -a-h2-m > -a:m, I.
-ah2-(e)h1 > -a: vs. D. -o-yéh2-ai > -a:ya:i, G. -o-yéh2-os
> -a:ya:s, V. -o-i(h2) > -e:, I. -o-yh2-áh1 > -aya: = OCS
-ojo(N), Arm. -oj^).
N -o-h3 Skt. -a:u
A -o-h1 Skt. -a:
G [-o-h1-os]
L [-o-h1-h3-u]
DI -o-h1-bhy-o-h3 Skt. -a:bhya:(m)
N --
A -o-ih1 Skt. -e: (n.)
G -o-ih1-os ~ Skt. -ayo:s
L -o-ih1-h3-u Grk. -oiiu(n)
DI [-o-ih1-bhy-o-h3]
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...