H1 and t??

[Glen Gordon]

I suggested the following development of the IE declension of t/s
stems as follows with a pseudo-example *kut:

                Pre-Pre-IE    Pre-IE                 IE
  Nominative    *kut          *kwet-se    *kwets     *kwets
  Accusative    *kut-im       *kwetm      *kwetm     *kwetm
  Dative                      *kwet-i:    *kweti:    *kwesi:(*kwesey)
  Genitive      *kut-isi      *kwetese    *kwete's   *kwese's
  Ablative      *kut-ita      *kweteta    *kwete'd   *kwese'd

MIGUEL:
  Not if we compare how t-stems are really declined (Beekes, p. 178):

  *nepo:t   Skt. napa:t     Lat. nepo:s
  *nepotm        napa:tam        nepo:tem
  *neptos        naptur          nepo:tis

Hmm, odd. That reconstruction doesn't look right. Are you sure there's
no lurking laryngeal? Maybe something like...

         *nepH:t     (compensatory lengthening from loss of *-s)
         *nepHt-m
         *nepHt-e's

The problem with this example, Miguel, is that Sanskrit <naptur> is
clearly innovative and doesn't represent the original state of
affairs. Neither does Latin.

MIGUEL:
  Or for instance Skt. marut "wind" (m.):

     sg.      du.          pl.
  N  marut    maruta:u     marutaH
  A  marutam  ,,           ,,
  I  maruta:  marudbhya:m  marudbhiH
  D  marute:  ,,           marudbhyaH
  G  marutaH  maruto:H     maruta:m
  L  maruti   ,,           marutsu

Sure, at first glance it looks contradictory but I have a question: Is
the <marut> paradigm related to forms outside Indo-Aryan? Is it a
foreign word? Is it derived from a native IE word? To make clear, if
it's not an ancient word then this example is void and null because it
could have entered the language AFTER the **t > *s changes took place.

MIGUEL:
  There are really only a few forms in which we see t/s
  alternation, such as the ptc.pf.act. in *-wot-/*-us-.

I don't think this is necessarily a bad statistic. There would be
strict characteristics that such a root would have to follow in order
to acquire this alternation.

--------------------------------------------
Glen Gordon
glengordon01 at hotmail.com
Kisses and Hugs
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