Proto-Indo-European long vowels and Balto-Slavic accentuation (original) (raw)
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Indo-European Linguistics and Classical Philology 25(1), 2021
The purpose of the paper is to find an historical explanation for the inessive case-forms of determinate, or ‘long’ adjectives of Standrad Lithuanian. It argues that Standard Lithuanian iness.sg. fem. gerõjoje, gerãjame etc. do not descend from their ‘fuller’ Old Lithuanian counterparts but rather reflect an independent formation. This independent formation is best understood as directly reflecting the inherited, Proto-Balto-Slavonic and/or Proto-Indo-European locative case, secondarily enlarged by the inessive clitic Proto-East-Baltic *=ḗn. The discussion of the phonological developments presupposed by this reconstruction yields interesting results concerning the phonetic realisation of the acute intonation in Proto-Baltic times.
1985
According to the traditional doctrine, Ihere are three types of long vowels in Indo-European languages: (1) Full-grade long vowels. These have acute tone in Lithuanian, and also in Greek final syllables, e. g. alga 'salary', άλφή 'gain'. (2) Contracted long vowels. These have circumflex tone in Lithuanian, and also in Greek final syllables, e. g. gen, sg. algös, άλφής. (3) Lengthened grade vowels. These have acute tone in Greek final syllables, e. g. ποιμ,ήν 'shepherd'. It is usually assumed that the circumflex tone of the Lithuanian cognate piemuo is the result of a secondary development. This point of view is not supported by the material. In the following I intend to show that circumflex tone is regulär on lengthened grade vowels in Balto-Slavic. The origin of the lengthened grade has largely been clarified by J. Wackernagel in his Old Indic Grammar [1896, 66-68]. He distinguishes [three categories with seven subdivisions: (a) Secondary nominal derivatives. Wackernagel accepts Streitberg's Suggestion [1894, 380] that lengthened grade in this category arose from analogical extension of lengthened grade in monosyllabic word forms. (b) Roots in monosyllabic nouns, before primary suffixes, in the singular of athematic presents, and in the active s-aorist, e. g.-härd-, härdi 'heart', märsti 'wipes', ajaisam 'conquered'. The long root vowel of these words originated from phonetic lengthening in monosyllabic word forms, e. g. *härd, *jais. (c) Final syllables of nom. sg. and loc. sg. forms of nominal stems in a resonant, e. g. sakhä 'friend', agna 'in fire', both with loss of the formative *-z. Here I assume phonetic lengthening before a word-final resonant and subsequent loss of the resonant. If we want to establish the tonal reflex of lengthened grade in Balto-Slavic, we have to examine what has remained of these categories in Lithuanian, Latvian, and Serbo-Croatian. I think that the following evidence is relevant.
From Proto-Indo-European to Slavic
Journal of Indo European Studies, 1994
A correct evaluation of the Slavic evidence for the reconstruction of the Indo-European proto-language requires an extensive knowledge of a considerable body of data. While the segmental features of the Slavic material are generally of corroborative value only, the prosodic evidence is crucial for the reconstruction of PIE. phonology. Due to the complicated nature of Slavic historical accentology, this has come to be realized quite recently. 1 As a result, much of the earlier literature has become obsolete to the extent that it is based upon an interpretation which does not take the multifarious accentual developments into account. I shall give one example. In Evidence for laryngeals (ed. by W. Winter, 1965), which remains a milestone in Indo-European studies, two of the authors adduce the short accent of SCr. sȑce 'heart' as evidence for a Proto-Slavic acute tone (117, 133). Actually, Slavic *sьrdьce has a falling tone and mobile accentuation, as is clear from the Slovene and Russian evidence. The circumflex was regularly shortened in trisyllabic word forms (see 9.4 below), e.g. mlȁdōst 'youth', cf. mlȃd 'young', and prȃse 'suckingpig', gen.sg. prȁseta. This does not detract from the fact that we have to reconstruct an acute tone for Balto-Slavic in view of Latvian sirds 'heart'. In Slavic, the acute tone became circumflex in words with mobile stress in accordance with Meillet's law (see 5.4 below). The tone of trisyllabic neuters can never be used for comparative purposes because they always have mobile accentuation if they belong to the older layers of the language. The Balto-Slavic acute tone in the word for 'heart' is no evidence for either a laryngeal or a PIE. long vowel because it arose phonetically before PIE. *d in accordance with Winter's law (see 4.3 below). The only evidence for an original long vowel is found in Old Prussian seyr, which in combination with the East Baltic and Slavic material points to a PIE. alternating paradigm *ḱēr(d), *ḱṛd-. The full grade form of the root *ḱerd-is attested in Lith. šerdìs 'core', OCS. srěda 'middle'. The small chapter on Balto-Slavic in Evidence for laryngeals is not only very short, but also quite useless. In the following I intend to present a synopsis of the main developments from Proto-Indo-European to Slavic in their chronological order so far as that has been established at this moment. It is largely based on my earlier account of the accen-1 For a survey of recent research I refer to the Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung 92 (1978), 269-281.