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Carpathian ablaut: Difference between revisions
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==Lengthened grade== | ==Lengthened grade== | ||
Late Proto-Indo-European had two long vowels (''*ē'' and ''*ō''), the sources of which were manifold. In the dialect of disintegrating Proto-Indo-European, which later became Carpathian, the length contrast led to a morphological alternation. The separate lengthened grade existed for both monophthongs and diphthongs, but later in Proto-Carpathian the full grade of diphthongs (''*ai'' and ''*au'') was reanalysed as the addition of ''*a'' to a full vowel (''*i'' and ''*u'' respectively), which led to the addition of ''*a'' to the original ''*e'' and ''*a'', which resulted in lengthening of those vowels. The loss of laryngeals further contributed to the establishment of the lengthened grade. | |||
The lengthened grade is present in the inflectional morphology, although no longer productive: | |||
*Consonant-stem declension in nouns: nominative ''pīl'''ē'''n'' — genitive ''pīl'''e'''ntis'' “chicken”. | |||
*Sigmatic aorist of verbs without a thematic vowel: ''n'''e'''stei'' “to carry” — ''n'''ē'''ssun'' “I carried”, ''w'''e'''stei'' “to lead” — ''wēssun'' “I led”. | |||
*Prefix and preposition doublets: ''par(a)-'' “towards” and ''parā(h)-'' “before, proto-”, ''pa'' “after” — ''pā-'' “later, secondary”, ''ba'' “for, because” — ''bā'' “indeed, as”. | |||
In derivational morphology, the lengthened grade is scattered and does not form regular patterns the same way, as the full and zero grades do. Some nominal derivation involves root vowel lengthening: | |||
*Substantives, ending in ''-is'' from verbs with full-grade root vowels, denoting product or result of an action: ''rektei'' “to say” — ''rēkis'' “speech”, ''dwestei'' “to breathe” — ''dwēstis'' “living being”, ''tartei'' “to speak” — dial. ''tāris'' “language” (standard ''tāra'' instead). | |||
The legthened grade can be involved in qualitative ablaut in the same way as the full grade, such as to create causative verbs: ''r'''ē'''žetei'' “to cut” — ''rōžītei'' “to strike”. | |||
===ū- and ī-grades=== | ===ū- and ī-grades=== | ||
Unlike in Proto-Indo-European, in Carpathian '''u''' and '''i''' were full vowels and took part in quantitative alternations alongside '''o''' and '''e'''. Resulting mostly from the loss of laryngeals "ū" and "ī" gave rise to a lengthened grade, which later spread by analogy and was employed in several morphological categories: | Unlike in Proto-Indo-European, in Carpathian '''u''' and '''i''' were full vowels and took part in quantitative alternations alongside '''o''' and '''e'''. Resulting mostly from the loss of laryngeals "ū" and "ī" gave rise to a lengthened grade, which later spread by analogy and was employed in several morphological categories: | ||