Re: [tied] Slavic adjectives: note on lêto

On Wed, 21 Feb 2007 10:32:24 +0100 (CET), Mate Kapović
<mkapovic@...> wrote:

>On Uto, veljača 20, 2007 8:09 pm, Miguel Carrasquer Vidal reče:
>> On Tue, 20 Feb 2007 14:04:44 +0100 (CET), Mate Kapović
>> <mkapovic@...> wrote:
>>
>>>On Uto, veljača 20, 2007 8:30 am, Miguel Carrasquer Vidal reče:
>>>> 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?
>>
>> Illich-Svitych gives the probably original barytone neuters
>> ty"lU (~ ty"lo), ga"dU, ja"dU, perhaps ly"ko (~ ly"kU). Dybo
>> adds gra"dU. The evidence is confused by PIE oxytone neuter
>> nouns which were affected by Hirt's law and other retraction
>> laws, and which retain -o.
>
>How is that possible? Hirt's Law would then have to operate *after* the
>dvorU-type change of gender which would place it well into Balto-Slavic.
>Of course, that makes no problems for Baltic...

Old Prussian had neuters in -an. I'm sure I've read about
this in several places, but right now I can't find anything.
In any case, barytone neuters in *-om give OPr. -an (esseran
= jezero). I wish I remembered what oxytone neuters give...

I don't know if you can say that the _change of gender_
should be placed well into Balto-Slavic. Initially, no
change of gender was involved. If the chronology is indeed
(1) *-óm > *'-om (in masculine oxytone Acc.sg.) (2) *-óm >
*-ó(d) (in neuter oxytone NA sg.) (3) Hirt's law, then in
Balto-Slavic we would have had:

1. masculines in *-ós, *'-om (mobile a.p.)
2. masculines in *'-os, *'-om (barytone a.p.)
3. neuters in *'-om (barytone a.p.)
4. neuters in *-ó(d) (oxytone a.p.)
5. neuters in *'-o(d) (barytone a.p. after Hirt)

One can see why category (3) would eventually merge with the
masculines, both in Slavic, where subsequent developments
led to the merger of (1), (2) and (3) as '-U; and in East
Baltic (where (4) and (5) eventually also lost their
separate identity, except in the "neuter adjective" in -a).
But there is no reason to think that the change of gender
took place immediately.

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
miguelc@...