On Wed, 19 Jul 2006 20:01:31 +0200, Piotr Gasiorowski
<
gpiotr@...> wrote:
>On 2006-07-19 18:46, Andrew Jarrette wrote:
>
>> But why
>> is the possibility of an independent IE aorist formation with
>> thematic vowel and zero grade completely rejected?
>
>Because the comparative evidence for such a formation has evaporated.
>It's just possible (but by no means certain) that a few such forms were
>recognised as aorists already in PIE, but there's little doubt that the
>entire <ávidat> type is secondary. So is the <tudáti> type, its
>counterpart among the present stems, though verbs of this type are
>somewhat better attested.
The tudáti-type is rare compared with the bhárati-type
(426-52 in LIV), but that rather speaks against the
tudáti-type being secondary.
If I may plug my a/i/u-theory once more, from that point of
view, neither the tudáti nor the bhárati type is older than
the other, and in fact they represent originally the same
type.
If we take it as granted that thematic subjunctives /
presents were indeed originally vrddhi formations (the
reason why is of course hard to determine: perhaps the
hesitation expressed by the subjunctive was expressed as
lengthening of the root vowel), a form like *bhéreti was
originally *bha:rát(i), with lengthened root vowel and
stress on the thematic vowel, then *bherét(i), with
shortening, but not loss, of the long vowel, and finally
*bhéret(i), with accent retraction to the first full vowel,
and remarkable, but standard, preservation of the thematic
vowel in unstressed position. Verbs of the tudáti-type were
formed exactly the same, except that they had an intrinsic
vowel *i or *u, lengthened to *i: and *u:, which unlike *a:,
_was_ reduced in unstressed position: *tu:dát(i) >
*t(w)dét(i) > *tudét(i) [c.q. *ti:wdáti > *twdét(i) >
*tudét(i)]. The vast majority of verbs would therefore seem
to have had intrinsic *a-vocalism. The tudáti-type is the
result of phonetic accident, which explains its marginal but
solid attestation in Indo-European, including Anatolian.
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...