--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Sean Whalen <stlatos@...> wrote:
>
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski
> <gpiotr@> wrote:
>
> > one would expect *seNto < *sinta
> > from BSl. *c'imtám). It's usually assumed that *sUto
> reflects Old
> > Iranian *satá with a peculiar treatment of
> unaccented *a (presumably
> > pronounced as a kind of schwa rather than fully open
> [a] in the Iranian
> > prototype).
also (previously):
I think a more convincing explanation is possible. The reduced vowel
*U which occurs in some Slavic river-names (*dUnEprU 'Dnieper',
*dUnEstrU 'Dniester') is the reflex of unstressed Iranian *a (also
shortened *a:) in a pretonic syllable. A similar substitution is
visible in the numeral '100', Slavic *sUtó < Iranian *satá- (the
regular Slavic reflex of the IE word would be **sInto or **sIntU) and
in the verb *xUt-je-/*xot-je-'want' (most likely from Iranian
*xat-yá- < *snt-jé-, cf. Polish chÄÄ 'willingness' < *xant-i- <
*sont-i-). The variation *U/*o in the verb is unmotivated
phonologically; *don-/*dUn- may be a similar case of an unstressed
back vowel being replaced by dialectal Slavic equivalents.
> I've taken your criticism very seriously and have
> studied the problem carefully. After researching the
> possibility from various angles (including using the
> archives of this list) I'm still convinced sUto comes
> regularly from *(t>0)k^m,tom.
Actually, after more study there doesn't seem to be any evidence
that a>@>u>U in Slavic. The change of *Da:nuwyos > *DunawjI is
obviously just metathesis and has nothing to do with any Iranian
vowels. The *uw wouldn't be common (or exist at all?) in Slavic so
metathesis could be expected by itself; also association with du- in
words for 'deep (often of water)' would help explain Balto-Slavic forms.
And xo/xUtEti < *swaG-n,t+ < *swaxd-n,t+ as Old Irish sant, Welsh
chwant seems possible. Since in Russian *podm,swo+ > both podos^va
'sole' and poc^va 'soil' it seems that a nasalized syl. > o/u > etc.
by sw optionally in Slavic (only without tone?).