Re: [tied] Slavic adjectives: note on lęto

On Uto, veljača 20, 2007 8:30 am, Miguel Carrasquer Vidal reče:

> On Tue, 20 Feb 2007 01:29:57 +0100 (CET), Mate Kapović
> <mkapovic@...> wrote:
>
> Thanks for the references, Mate.
>
> Just a short unrelated note on the word lęto "summer". This
> had been worrying me, because the usual etymology connects
> it with Germanic le:T-, which must be barytone (Verner). If
> so, lęto would be one of the few originally barytone neuter
> which has remained neuter (NA ending -o). Normally,
> originally barytone neuters become masculine (*dhwórom >
> dvorU), and secondarily barytone neuters can be explained by
> an appeal to Hirt's law (or other retractions).

Isn't the dvorU-type change for non-acute stems only? Or am I mistaken?

> In the online version of Vasmer, under "Trubachev's
> comments", however, I read:
>
> Machek (Etymol. slovn., p. 265) considers original *<lęto
> (vermeN)>, cognate with Lat. laetus, originally "beautiful",
> i.e. lęto (summer) = "beautiful (time)", cf. NGr. kalokaíri
> "summer", from kalós "beautiful", kairós "time".
>
> That would explain it: adjectives _always_ have -o.

And the acute in Slavic?

Mate