On the ordering of some PIE rules

I don't know what bugs cybalist. It threw my posting away.

Anyway...




Three traditional rules for IE:

1 RUKI (Balto-Slavic, Iranian)
2a *-dhT-, *-dT- -> *-zd-, *-tT- -> *-st- (Balto-Slavic, Iranian)
b *-dhT- -> *-ddh-, *-dT- -> *-dd-, *-tT- -> *-tt- (Indic)
c *-dhT-, *-dT-, *-tt- -> *-ss- (Celtic, Germanic, Italic)
where T is any stop
3 stop + consonant -> corresponding fricative + consonant (Iranian)
4 stop -> fricative etc (Germanic, Armenian)

Sequence 1 < 2, 2 < 3, 2 < 4

1 must have come before 2, as Beekes (A Grammar of Gatha-Avestan)
points out, since the sibilants in the outcome of the assibilation
rule otherwise would have been affected by the RUKI rule which they
aren't (Avestan cit + ti -> cisti, not **cis^ti).
It is strange that the assibilation rule which seems to have applied
over a large area in some form, should have come after the RUKI rule
which is limited to Balto-Slavic and Iranian (and Armenian, I think).
Also, the Iranian rule 3 seems to be similar to and in competition
with the assibilation rule. Also, it is strange that almost all IE
languages agree that the otherwise non-affricated dentals of PIE
suddenly should be assibilated when they meet. Therefore I propose the
following sequence of rules to replace those above:

1 stop + stop -> corresponding fricative + stop (PIE)
2 RUKI (Balto-Slavic, Indo-Iranian)
3a *-Dd- -> *-zd-, *-Tt- -> *-st- (Balto-Slavic, Iranian)
3b *-Ddh- -> *-ddh-, *-Dd- -> *-dd-, *-Tt- -> *-tt- (Indic)
3c *-Ddh-, *-Dd-, *-Tt- -> *-ss- (Celtic, Germanic, Italic)
where T is the fricative thorn and D is its voiced counterpart.
4 by analogy, generalization of rule 1 to
stop + consonant -> corresponding fricative + consonant (Iranian)
5 by analogy, generalization of rule 1 to
stop -> corresponding fricative
(Germanic and Armenian, under influence of Iranian)
6 the opposite generalization of 5
fricative -> corresponding stop, cf Sanskrit above
(all other languages)

Sequence 1 < 2, 2 < 3a, 2 < 3b, 1 < 3c, 3a < 4, 3c < 5, 2 < 6

Note that T means something different in the new than in the old set
of rules; that is the consequence of using ASCII.


The trick of this new set is that so to speak the common elements of
rule 2abc have been factored out and placed in PIE, and only that part
of the rule within the RUKI area that could get phonemes "in harm's
way" by changing them into sibilants is placed after the RUKI rule. At
the same time we get rid of the whole Germanic/Armenian sound shift by
replacing it with generalizations of allophones that were already
present in PIE.


Torsten