Fw: [tied] PIE genitive plural *-o:m, a possible analysis

----- Original Message -----

From: Patrick Ryan

To: Cybalist

Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2006 3:37 PM

Subject: [tied] PIE genitive plural *-o:m, a possible analysis

An idea occurred to me today that I would like to offer for criticism and comment.

 

I have long believed that the *o-stem genitive singular, -*'os should be regarded as a simple prosodic variation of the nominative singular -*os - a simple shift of the stress-accent from the root to the post-root syllable.

 

I propose that the earliest neuter nominative singular in -*om formed a nominative plural in -*'om, and the neuter genitive plural was differentiated from it by length: -*'oom.

 

Subsequently, the neuter nominative plural was re-formed with -*Ha(:), leaving -*'oom as the neuter genitive plural without a prosodic counterpart in the nominative.

 

This neuter genitive plural form was subsequently adopted by the -*o-stems.