Laryngeals

[Jens Elmegaard Rasmussen]

On Fri, 19 Mar 1999, Peter &/or Graham wrote:

> Re the note on laryngeals and -u, what about laryngeals and i (outside the
> Sanskrit reflex of syllabic laryngeals)?
>     1.  Sanskrit forms such as de- from da: (before y- in some forms)
>     2.  The number of laryngeal roots which appear with -i forms in some
> languages:  (s)terH(i), (s)perH(i), treH(i) and a number of others.
>     (3.   Does the Hittite -i- in dai have an explanation within Hittite?)

There is between 2 and 3. For 1, the optative stem deya:- of da:- is a
commonplace case of levelling; the original form *diya:-, retained in
Avestan, from *dH3-ieH1-, took over *daH- from the (predecessor of) the
aorist *daH- > da:-, thereby becoming *daH-iyaH- whence *da.iya:- >
deya:-.

2. IE had some roots in -Hy, even some in -RHy. I have treated their
alternation rules in a book from 1989 (Studien zur Morphophonemik der
indogermanischen Grundsprache, Innsbruck), finding i.a. that -VHy is
reduced to -VH before a tautosyllabic consonantism, and that the
zero-grade of -VRHy is metathesized to -RiH (> -Ri:) before a consonant
(the same thing applies to -CRHu/-RuH).

3. The Hitt. inflection of IE *dheH1- as if it were *dheH1y- must be
analogical on other roots that ended in -VHy ("long-diphthong roots) from
of old (as, ispa:i 'eats his fill' based on a perfect *spe-spoH1y-e,
whence stem /spa:y-/). The long-diphthong structure had the advantage of
providing a buffer consonant before the vocalic ending of the 3sg of the
perfect (> hi-conjugation); no such adjustment was needed for the same
root in the meaning 'say', tezzi, 3sg prt tet from the aorist *dheH1-t
'put (forward)'.

Jens Elmegaard Rasmussen