On Sat, 3 Mar 2007 18:53:33 +0100 (CET), Mate Kapović
<
mkapovic@...> wrote:
Unfortunately, a detailed discussion of all these issues is
impossible, as I don't have the time.
Just a few words about:
>> even SCr. Gpl. -a: [I know you won't agree]),
>
>It is just interesting that this -a:, whatever its origin, occurs only in
>Štokavian (sic!), and not in any Štokavian, but only in *innovative*
>(Neo-Štokavian) dialects. There are *no* dialects (Štokavian or other)
>which have conservative morphology *and* -a: in gen. pl.
>If you think that -a: is original, why not consider it original as Dybo does?
I suppose you're referring to the fact that Dybo links the
length in Gpl. -U: somehow to the etymology, with a PIE
superlong *-őm (4 morae!). I don't think the etymology is
relevant. The reduction of the 4 morae to 3 (*-u:m), then 2
(*-uN), then 1 (*-U) was a thing of the distant past by the
time the lengthening of stressed endings took place. It is
clear that the process (OK, if it took place at all), took
place _after_ quantity had given way to quality as the main
marker of "long" vowels. I think we can get much more
interesting results if we let go of the prejudiced notion
that _etymological_ length or shortness played any role at
all in the process of final lengthening.
About Gpl. -a:, I think it may indeed reflect the lengthened
jer -U:, so is original, but that it cannot be the _normal_
reflex of final -U: (which is of course -0), so it's also
innovative. The only way -a: can be derived from a weak
final -U: is if an enclitic followed. A "Bulgarian-like"
z^enU:-ti:xU, mu:z^I:-ti:xU won't do, but perhaps something
like z^enU:-sI, mu:z^I:-sI (as ungrammatical as zimu-sI >
zimu:s or le^to-sI > l(j)etos) could work. There is of
course no special reason why -sI should have been optionally
appended to the Gpl. as opposed to other cases, but only in
the Gpl. (and Dpl., Lpl.) would it have produced such a
phonetically striking result (z^ena:-s, z^enama(:)-s,
*z^enaha(:)-s), making it available for grammaticalization
as a replacement for the lost Gpl. ending in o- and
a:-stems. All we need is one dialect with a fondness of
adding -sI all over the place, from which the innovation
would have spread.
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
miguelc@...