Re: Slavic endings

From: tgpedersen
Message: 45712
Date: 2006-08-14

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Andrew Jarrette <anjarrette@...> wrote:
>
>
>
> mcvwxsnl <mcv@...> wrote:
> The facts about the stress are the following:
>
> masc. nom. *-os could be stressed (mobile paradigm) or unstressed
> (barytone paradigm). In both cases the result is (pre-Dybo's law)
> Slavic unstressed -U.
> masc. acc. *-om was always unstressed in Proto-Balto-Slavic. It gives
> Slavic unstressed -U.
> neuter NA. *-os (s-stems) was always unstressed. It gives Slavic
> unstressed -o.


> Why did unstressed *-os become -U in masculines, but become -o in
neuters? This suggests that perhaps unstressed *o before *s remained
/o/ rather than being raised (which would be parallel to it remaining
/o/ before /d/), and that -U in the masculines is from the accusative.
This would argue for my point rather than against it.
>
>
> It can be added that in the verbal system, stressed *-ós (e.g. 1pl.
> mobile -mós) and *-óm (e.g. 1sg. thematic aorist *-(s)óm) both give
> U (which was stressed before Ivs^ic''s law).
>
> Robert Beekes suggests that the 1 pl. ending might have been -mom
in some languages, rather than *-mos (alongside *-mem (Greek -men) and
*-mes). This would then be another instance of *-om becoming -U,
rather than *-os. It would seem also that this development would then
not be dependent on stress (since these verb endings were stressed yet
did not become *-o), and therefore the neuter o-stem ending -o of
Slavic would have to be explained as from *-od rather than from *-óm
(or else from *-o, but I have become aware that this is not widely
supported as credible).


If Schmalstieg's idea (the way I understood it)is right.
that the thematic vowel in nouns is -oN-
(me: PPIE -an- > -ã- > -õ- > -o-;
this must mean thematic nouns were
desinence-stressed n-stems),
then we can strengthen the description of its variation:
PPIE a > ã > õ > o before nasal (which makes more sense
phonetically, instead of just before voiced),
PPIE a > e otherwise.
That would mean that thematic m. nom. is
PPIE *-an-s > *-õ-s -> *-os generally, but
Slavic *-õ-s -> -U

BTW the -o- of *-od could be explained if the voiced
unaspirated were originally prenasalized:
PPIE *-a-Nd > *-ãd > *-õd -> *-od


Torsten