[Lingtyp] morpheme -> empty morph -> epenthetic formative?

[Alex Francois]

dear Adam,

I can think of two examples of such epenthetic phonemes, one in French, one
in Ancient Greek .

*Indefinite pronoun in French*
French has an indefinite pronoun *on * [õ]  ('someone', 'one', 'we...'),
which is parallel in use to German *man*.  Just like *man* is
etymologically related to the noun *Mann* 'man', areal contact between
Gallo-Romance and Germanic dialects resulted in a calque in Old French:
this is how Lat. *homo* > OF *hom* 'man' (cf. modern Fr. *homme*)
grammaticalized as an indefinite clitic subject *om * (842, Oaths of
Strasbourg) > *on*.

Modern French (formal style) has kept a variant *l’on* [lõ] which is mostly
used for euphonic purposes, often to avoid a hiatus:  *si l'on a envie*
'if we want';  *pour que l'on puisse partir*  'so one can leave'.  This /l/
has no semantic value: it is a free variant used mostly for “stylistic” and
phonological purposes.

The CNRTL <https://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/on> says “La lang[ue] châtiée
use volontiers de la var[iante] styl[istique] *l'on , *surtout après *et,
où *et *si, *plus rarement après* ou, qui, quoi, pourquoi.*”


Historically, this /l/ was simply the noun article before *hom*:  (ille
homo >) *l'hom* > *l'on*.

*Ephelcystic nu in Ancient Greek*
Homeric and classical Greek had an optional 'nu' (the phoneme *ν* /n/
called *nu*) called in French *nu éphelcystique* ~ *euphonique*, in English
*ephelcystic*  ~ *movable** nu* <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movable_nu>
.
It was found at the end of various verb forms, mostly after high vowels /i,
e/:

   - ἐστί(ν)  [esti ~ esti*n*] 'be:Indic:Prst:3sg'  'he/she is'
   - εἶπε(ν)  [ēpe ~ ēpe*n*] 'say:Indic:Aor:3sg'  'he/she said'  (+all 3sg
   aorist forms)
   - ἔχουσι(ν)  [ekʰōsi ~ ekʰōsi*n*] 'have:Indic:Prst:3pl'  'they have'
   (+all 3pl present forms), etc.

... and of other forms, incl. pronominal, adverbial, etc:

   - (Homeric)  σφι(ν)  [spʰi ~ spʰi*n*] 'they:Dat:Pl'  'to them'
   - εἴκοσι(ν)  [ēkosi ~ ēkosi*n*] 'twenty'
   - etc.

This /n/ had no meaning. It was mostly used as an epenthetic consonant to
avoid a hiatus, particularly when needed by poetic scansion.

The origins of this ephelcystic *nu* are opaque, and few references seem to
exist.  I searched Chantraine's *Dictionnaire
<https://archive.org/details/Dictionnaire-Etymologique-Grec/mode/2up>
étymologique de la langue grecque*, to no avail.
Kuryłowicz wrote a short article, but I don't have access to it (and it's
apparently controversial
<https://www.persee.fr/doc/antiq_0770-2817_1976_num_45_2_1840_t1_0714_0000_2?q=%22%C3%A9phelcystique%22>
):

   - Kuryłowicz, Jerzy. 1972. L'origine de la nasale éphelcystique.
dans *Mélanges
   de linguistique et de philologie grecques offerts à Pierre Chantraine*.
   Paris, Klincksieck. 1972, 75-81.

I remember that someone (Françoise Bader
<https://www.persee.fr/doc/ephe_0000-0001_1972_num_1_1_5727>, I think) had
proposed that this ephelcystic /-n/ resulted from the reanalysis of a 3pl
suffix (*-nt > *-n) as a 3sg marker, in forms like Hom. ἦεν ('was', 3sg
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E1%BC%A6%CE%B5%CE%BD#Ancient_Greek> –
but originally
a 3pl form
<https://books.google.fr/books?id=XXFLDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PT383&ots=t9hJO328hv&dq=%E1%BC%A6%CE%B5%CE%BD%20schwyzer&hl=fr&pg=PT390#v=onepage&q=%E1%BC%A6%CE%B5%CE%BD%20schwyzer&f=false>).
Hopefully other colleagues can provide other references.

best
Alex
------------------------------

Alex François

LaTTiCe <http://www.lattice.cnrs.fr/en/alexandre-francois/> — CNRS–
<http://www.cnrs.fr/index.html>ENS
<https://www.ens.fr/laboratoire/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-et-cognition-umr-8094>
–Sorbonne nouvelle
<http://www.univ-paris3.fr/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-cognition-umr-8094-3458.kjsp>
Australian National University
<https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/francois-a>
Academia page <https://cnrs.academia.edu/AlexFran%C3%A7ois> – Personal
homepage <http://alex.francois.online.fr/>
------------------------------


On Mon, 3 Feb 2020 at 14:10, TALLMAN Adam <Adam.TALLMAN at cnrs.fr> wrote:

> Hey everyone,
>
> I'm asking if anyone has described or found likely cases where some
> epenthetic segment(s) has/have been exapted from previously meaningful
> morphology.
>
> So think of a morpheme that once meant something, becomes semantically
> bleached, but then acquires a function as an epenthetic element to meet
> minimality conditions or to avoid vowel hiatus or something else.
>
> I understand (from wikipedia) that /t/ in French interrogatives comes from
> habet and could be an example of this and the insertion of /n/ in English
> after 'a' determiner #vowel  is also an example. I'm wondering about more
> sources on diachronic processes like these. Also any good sources on the
> French and English processes would also be helpful.
>
> best,
>
> Adam
>
>
>
>
>
> Adam James Ross Tallman (PhD, UT Austin)
> ELDP-SOAS -- Postdoctorant
> CNRS -- Dynamique Du Langage (UMR 5596)
> Bureau 207, 14 av. Berthelot, Lyon (07)
> Numero celular en bolivia: +59163116867
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