Greek and Indo-Iranian (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Hittite genitive ending -ā̆n [2017]
Usque Ad Radices: Indo-European studies in honour of Birgit Anette Olsen (edd. B.S.S. Hansen, A. Hyllested, et al.), Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2017, 385-400.
Պատմաբանասիրական հանդես //Historical-Philological Journal, 2021
The morphological status of the stem-final vowels of I.-E. nominal stems in Old Armenian is characterized and interpreted differently by different scholars. It is argued in the paper that, according to the principles of morphological analysis, the vocalic elements should be regarded as oblique-stem markers in Old Armenian nominal declension. To put it another way, the fixation of an intensity accent on the prehistoric penultimate syllable in Armenian, which entailed the dropping of the posttonic vocalic elements, had an important morphological consequence as well: the stem-final vowels of I.-E. nominal stems were lost in the direct cases, while having been retained in the oblique ones (partly due to analogical changes); as a result, the vocalic elements took on the function of oblique-stem markers. Of course, the absence of the latter not only in the direct cases but also in some oblique cases (cf. abl. sing. սրտ-է, ծով-է, քաղաք-է, loc. sing. հն-ում, առաջն-ում etc.), could contribute to the vocalic elements being conceived of as case endings or an inseparable part of endings by speakers. In Middle Armenian, the vocalic elements eventually merged with the endings proper or they became case endings on their own.
More evidence for Proto-Indo-European transfixes: Two types of "lengthened grades"
The Vulgar Pre-Indo-European new lengthened grade marking nominative and locative singular forms must be distinguished from a Proto-Indo-European geminate transfix *_VV_ which was realized as a long vowel in the root vowel slot. The new lengthened grade arose by laws of Auslaut and was secondarily employed as an additional marker of nominative singular and locative singular forms. It cannot plausibly be dated to a period prior than the Vulgar Pre-Indo-European dialect or variant cluster. The geminate transfix *_VV_, however, was a proper Proto-Indo-European marker of nominal and verbal PLURATIVITY. Keywords: Lengthened grade, Szemerényi’s law, Nussbaum’s law.