Re: Finnish KASKA

----- Original Message -----
From: "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2008 3:36 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Re: Finnish KASKA


> On 2008-02-21 21:46, Patrick Ryan wrote:
>
> > Why is it *dwo- rather than *dwé-?
> >
> > Before endings added.
>
> In theory, it's *dw-e/o-, a thematic stem. The thematic vowel was *e or
> *o, the colour being originally determined by the ending -- *o if the
> first segment of the ending was voiced, *e otherwise (this original
> distribution was often disturbed by analogical levelling, especially in
> the declensional system). If *dw-o: comes from *dw-o-X, where *X is the
> original animate nom.du. ending, the quality of the thematic vowel
> suggests that *X was a voiced or an *o-colouring consonant. As *h3 was
> both, it's possible that the anim. nom.du. should be reconstructed as
> *dw-o-h3.
>
> All the other dual case forms, animate as well as neuter, had voiced
> endings, so the thematic vowel of the numeral 'two' was *-o- across the
> board. However, if 'two' occurs as the first member of a compound, we
> find the bare stem *dw-V- with the thematic vowel reduced to *-i-, hence
> the compositional variant *dwi-.
>
> Piotr

***

Thank you very much, Piotr, that is exactly what I was looking for: a
standard theory explanation.

I could differ on a number of points but I am not sure what would be served
by it.

One point I would take up if you feel like pursuing it with me.

Thematic vowel reduced to -*I-?

So, now the thematic vowel, *A, is realizable as *e, *o, *Ø, AND *i.

In my opinion, this is flat-out wrong.


Patrick