Re: 'Vocalic Theory'

On Sun, 30 Mar 2008 09:43:12 -0500, "Patrick Ryan"
<proto-language@...> wrote:

>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Miguel Carrasquer Vidal" <miguelc@...>
>> Some cases of vr.ddhi are very old indeed. That explains the
>> full grade in most thematic nouns, adjectives and verbs. The
>> root was lengthened, the stress fell on the thematic vowel
>> (e.g. **bhar- => **bha:r-á-). Subsequently, the long vowel
>> was shortened in pretonic position, and attracted the stress
>> (**bha:r-á- > *bhér-e-).
>
>***
>
>Why was the root vowel lengthened?
>

Because that's how the derivational device known as
"vr.ddhi" works.

>***
>> The cases in which PIE still has a long vowel are more
>> recent (*h2owi- => *h2o:wi-óm). That is simply because
>> vr.ddhi remained a productive derivational pattern.
>***
>
>So, are you saying that the addition of -*om caused the vowel to be
>lengthened?

Not quite. Like the addition of *-h2a doesn't _cause_ the
verbal root to reduplicate. It's morphological.

>Any other examples of that?

Yes. *swék^ur- "father in law" => *swe:kurós "brother in
law" (Du. zwager, G. Schwager > Pol. szwagier). There are
more, but of course I can't think of any right now.

Note that from zero-grade roots with a resonant, vr.ddhi
works by inserting /e/ (at the first available spot, so not
always the etymologically correct place): *dieu- : *diu-
"sky, etc." => *deiwós "divine". Or *nu "now" => new-ós
"new".

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