I said:
>Erh... but it was the _penultimate accentuation_ that protected
>the thematic vowel. Ex: MIE *b�re-m "I carry" versus *ber�-mes
Whoops. That should be *b�re-m/*ber�-mes. I need to put the
concept of "Mid IE Paradigmatic Vocalism" online so that I
don't confused again...
In MIE, the stressed vowel of a stem was carried through its
entire paradigm. So, for example, the stressed vowel of the noun
*kew�ne (*k^wo:n) is *a. Therefore, stressed *a was carried into
all other cases like the genitive *kewen�-se. The root *x�wei
"bird" (*xawis) on the other hand has the genitive *xew�i-se
(*xweis) not **xew�i-se because the stressed vowel of the root
is *e.
Similarly, in verbs, the vocalism of the present of MIE *ber-
(and most other present stems) is *e. Thus, the vowel *e should
also be carried into the entire conjugation, producing *ber�-mes
in the 1pp. This produced Early Late IE *bher�mes, but the
recent thematic regularization of accent then produced *bh�remes.
Finally, the thematic vowel was rounded to *o in *bheromes and
*bheront. Anyways, as I say, the penultimate accent DID protect
the thematic vowel.
I've stated this before but here's the summary of the relevant
changes in order of occurence:
Mid IE
- paradigmatic vocalism rule in effect
- thematic *-e- spreads by analogy with 3ps *-e
into the 1pp and 2pp active conjugation
- postpositional demonstrative *ta (*to) begins to
be used in 3ps (*b�re "he carries" > *b�re ta)
- loss of final vowels
Late IE
- the thematic genitive *-�s (seen in *k^un-�s and *ped-�s)
becomes a highly productive suffix for coining new nouns
and adjectives
- accent regularized onto the initial syllable of
all thematic noun and verb stems (but NOT athematic or
adjectival stems)
- rounding of unstressed *e to *o in special environments
- *-om > *o:
So we see in the 1ps:
*b�rem
> *bh�rem
> *bh�rom
> *bh�ro:
And in the 1pp:
*ber�mes
> *bher�mes
> *bh�remes
> *bh�romes
There. Now that makes sense. Sorry 'bout the confusion.
- love gLeN
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