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

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

From: Rob

To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2006 8:46 AM

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

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Patrick Ryan" <proto-language@...>
wrote:
>
> 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, -*ós,    
> 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 -*óm, and the neuter genitive plural
> was differentiated from it by length: -*ó:m.
>
> Subsequently, the neuter nominative plural was re-formed with     
> -*Ha(:), leaving -*ó:m as the neuter genitive plural without a    
> prosodic counterpart in the nominative.
>
> This neuter genitive plural form was subsequently adopted by the  
> -*o-stems.

The idea is interesting, but I do not see any evidence for the
stress-contrasts that you describe.  Could you explain where you see
evidence for these contrasts?

Thanks,
Rob

***

Patrick:

 

Sorry for the delay in responding.

 

The most transparent examples for this contrast is found in the _late_ forms:

 

bhóro-s, 'act (singular) of bearing, what is borne'

bhoró-s, 'acts (plural) of bearing, bearer'

My claim would be that the _essential_ difference between these two forms is number.

 

Nominally, the fewest additional complications are seen in root nouns:

 

Cé(:)C-s, singular; Co(:)Cé-s, plural  (*wékW[o]-s / *wokWé-s)

 

Some daughter languages found the form *wékW-s (also *péd-s, *dém-s, etc.) phonologically difficult and inserted a helping vowel ([*o]; this is _not_ re-patterning as an *o-stem!). Influenced by the root-vowel quality of the plural form (*o), and the quality of the helping vowel (*o) when it was subsequently deleted, the root-vowel of the singular was re-patterned in some daughter languages to *ó: (*wó:kW-s); and later, the plural form acquired *o: by analogy (*wo:kWé-s).

 

Let us see if this scenario is acceptable (or, at least, worthy of consideration), and we can discuss *o-stems and thematic verbal forms.

 

***