[tied] Re: IE thematic presents and the origin of their thematic vo

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

> May I barge in? I proposed this rule to account for the initial
> accent on the *reduced* variant of the long-vowel ("Narten")
> presents, which were then found to go by the same rules as long-
> vowel nouns. It only becomes possible if one assumes a subsequent
> retraction of the accent to the first full vowel of the word. I
> found that such a rule could be postulated at little or no cost,
> since the normal ablaut reductions had made monosyllables out of
> most words anyway. Thus, when pre-ablaut 3pl *gWhen-ént, gen.sg.
> *H2ner-ós, *te:k^T-ént, *ne:kWt-ós had become *gWhnént, *H2nrós,
> *ték^Tnt, *nékWts with accent retraction in the last two, they were
> *all* accented on their first real vowel.

All well and good, from a descriptive point of view; but is such an
accent retraction *phonologically* realistic?

> Accent differentiation like that seen in tómos : tomós must then
> belong to a younger period.

I do agree here.

- Rob