Tone variation in the Baltic ia-presents
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Miguel Villanueva Svensson
Abstract
The ia-presents frequently present tone variants in the dialects, e. g. Lith. spr̨ę́sti, spréndžia, spréndė ∼ sprę̃sti, spreñdžia, spreñdė ‘decide’, lémti, lẽmia, lė̃mė ∼ lemti, lẽmia, lė̃mė ‘predetermine’. In the case of °ER- and °EU‑roots acute intonation is clearly expansive, whereas the circumflex is strongly favored in the case of roots in °ERK‑, °EUK‑, °ĒK‑. A complete survey of the evidence shows that circumflex/acute variation is extremely widespread among ia-presents of °ERK-/°EUK-/°ĒK-roots and that acute intonation is clearly the original one, thus pointing to a general trend invariant acute → circumflex/acute variation → invariant acute or invariant circumflex. The circumflex variants probably arose in the ē‑preterite: *sprénd-ˈii̯ā > *ˈspreñd‑e > Lith. dial. spreñdė. In most controllable cases the original acute is due to regular sound law (a laryngeal or Winter’s Law), whereas a minority of examples most probably continue Indo-European Narten formations.
© 2014 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelei
- Vorwort der Herausgeber
- Contents
- A note on the functional distribution of ille in Late Latin
- The origin of the Baltic inchoative in -sta-
- Once more on Hittite ā/e-ablauting ḫi-verbs
- The long vowel in WGmc. *hlūdV
- Homeric κρείων ‘lord’ and the Indo-European word for ‘head’
- Decoding Middle Welsh clauses or “Avoid Ambiguity”
- Did murmur spread in Pre-Proto-Indo-European?
- Intensifiers and reflexives in SAE, Insular Celtic and English
- Beiträge zur Leidener Arbeitstagung 2013
- Ares the Ripper
- Tone variation in the Baltic ia-presents
- “Narten formations” versus “Narten roots”
- Surprise at length of Tocharian nouns
- From phonetics to grammar
- Notes on three “acrostatic” neuter s-stems
- Monosyllabic circumflexion or shortening?
- The augment of vowel-initial roots and vṛddhi–derivation in the Indo–Iranian languages
- The lengthened grade in Germanic hypocoristica
- The fourth makes it whole?
- Wortindex
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelei
- Vorwort der Herausgeber
- Contents
- A note on the functional distribution of ille in Late Latin
- The origin of the Baltic inchoative in -sta-
- Once more on Hittite ā/e-ablauting ḫi-verbs
- The long vowel in WGmc. *hlūdV
- Homeric κρείων ‘lord’ and the Indo-European word for ‘head’
- Decoding Middle Welsh clauses or “Avoid Ambiguity”
- Did murmur spread in Pre-Proto-Indo-European?
- Intensifiers and reflexives in SAE, Insular Celtic and English
- Beiträge zur Leidener Arbeitstagung 2013
- Ares the Ripper
- Tone variation in the Baltic ia-presents
- “Narten formations” versus “Narten roots”
- Surprise at length of Tocharian nouns
- From phonetics to grammar
- Notes on three “acrostatic” neuter s-stems
- Monosyllabic circumflexion or shortening?
- The augment of vowel-initial roots and vṛddhi–derivation in the Indo–Iranian languages
- The lengthened grade in Germanic hypocoristica
- The fourth makes it whole?
- Wortindex
