Does tvátpitāraḥ = εὐπάτωρ?

A standard comparison in Indo-European linguistics equates Vedic tvátpitāraḥ ‘having you as father’ and Ancient Greek compounds in -πατωρ, e.g., εὐπάτωρ ‘having a good father, lineage’. Many scholars describe this equation as resulting from “Internal Derivation”: the second-member of the compound would exhibit amphikinetic inflection, internally derived from a noun with hysterokinetic inflection. This paper reassesses the philological evidence for the long-vowel forms of Vedic -pitār-. Because the long-vowel forms are confined to one Vedic school (Taittirīyans), it is argued that the short-vowel forms such as -pitar- reflect the inherited Indic vowel length in these compounds. Following this reassessment, I question to what extent the second-members of possessive compounds (e.g., Gk. -πατωρ) reflect an “amphikinetic” paradigm. I argue that the forms are “amphikinetic” only to the extent that they show an o-grade suffix in Greek, and that defining such second-members as amphikinetic both overgenerates (predicts unattested forms) and undergenerates (fails to predict attested accents).

Umbrian ⟨rs⟩ and ⟨rf⟩

This paper examines two different outcomes of reconstructed *rs sequences in Umbrian. While the sequence *rs which goes back to Proto-Sabellic is continued as ⟨rs⟩,secondary *rs that developed from *rVs by syncope or from *rtt by assibilation and degemination is written as ⟨rf⟩.A synchronic and diachronic analysis of these different outcomes is provided.It is argued that the key conditioning factor for the different outcomes is not whether *rs was diachronically original, but whether *s in *rs formed a simple onset.

Rhotic degemination in Sanskrit and the etymology of Vedic ūrú- ‘thigh’, Hittite UZU(u)walla- ‘id.’

This paper examines the absence of geminate -rr- in Sanskrit and argues that the synchronic ban on this sequence results from continued high ranking of an Obligatory Contour Principle constraint against heteromorphemic geminates (inherited from PIE) combined with the substrate influence of Dravidian languages in which the rhotics are non-geminable. New -rr- sequences that arose in Proto-Indo-Iranian and Proto-Indo-Aryan from PIE *-LL- or *-LHL- after loss of the laryngeal and merger of *l with the rhotic were repaired through degemination. This hypothesis predicts a development of PIE *(-)CL̥HLV- to Sanskrit (-)Cī/ūrV- which has not been previously recognized in the treatments of Indic historical phonology. This development is arguably found in mūrá- ‘stupid’ < *mūrra- < *mr̥hx-lo- (cf. Hitt. marlant- ‘stupid’), ūrú- ‘thigh’ < *u̯ūrru- < *(hx)u̯l̥hx-Lu- ← *(hx)u̯l̥hx-Lo- (cf. Hitt. walla- ‘thigh’), śīrá- ‘fervent’ < *śīrrá- < *k̑l̥hx-Ló- (cf. śrā́ya-ti ‘be fervent’), and perhaps in several other examples.

Tocharian B agent nouns in -ntsa and their origin

The agent noun suffix in -ntsa belongs to a complex of Tocharian B agent noun formations, similar in form, function, and inflection. Of these, two suffixes are widely believed to be related to -ntsa: the productive agent noun in -ñca and the lexicalised agent noun in -nta. The suffix -ntsa forms occupational titles to eleven verbs in Tocharian B and can be reconstructed for Proto-Tocharian through comparison with Tocharian A. In this paper, it is argued that the suffix originated in the feminine of the PIE active participle in *-nt. This is substantiated by the fact that several ntsa-nouns refer to primarily female professions, as well as the existence of the relic forms Bpreṃtsa ‘pregnant’ and Blāntsa ‘queen’. Furthermore, it is proposed that the masculine is reflected in the suffixes -ñca and -nta and that the disintegration of gendered inflection in the participle led to its development into several agent noun formations.

The origin of the Indo-European simple thematic presents

It is now generally agreed upon that the Indo-European simple thematic presents are a post-Anatolian innovation. The origin of this formation, however, remains unclear. In this paper it is argued that the initial core of simple thematic presents was of denominative origin. They go back to an early Core PIE class of denominatives derived from e-grade thematic adjectives through conversion, e.g., adj. *léu̯k-o- ‘clear’ (Gk. λευκός ‘white’) → vb. *léu̯k-e/o- ‘be/make clear’ (Ved. rócate ‘shines’, TB lyuśtär ‘will light up’). This derivational pattern became obsolete already within Core PIE and a number of original denominatives like *léu̯k-e/o- were reinterpreted as primary present stems.

Contributions to a relative chronology of Persian

Old Persian shows a change of postconsonantal y, w to iy, uw, respectively. However, if one applies (pre-)Middle Persian sound changes to the Old Persian forms, the result is at variance with certain Middle Persian forms. If one were to assume a syncope reversing the Old Persian change of y, w to iy, uw, this would also affect old cases of iy, uw and likewise yield incorrect results for Middle Persian. The Old Persian change can thus not have operated in the prehistory of Middle Persian, and there is a dialectal difference between attested Old Persian and the later stages of the language, which is to be added to those already noted. The paper also discusses some sound changes that are connected to the Old Persian change in one way or the other. Cases in point are the processes called Epenthesis and Umlaut in previous scholarship, which this article suggests to interpret as occurring in different contexts and in different periods. The former is limited to Vry, which yields Vir and feeds into a monophthongisation that, as shown by some late Old Persian word forms, occurred within Achaemenid times, giving ēr and īr from ary and əry. Epenthesis did not occur in the prehistory of Parthian, whereas the monophthongisation did. The Appendix presents a tentative sequence of the processes discussed in this article, which is intended as a contribution to the relative chronology of Persian historical phonology.

The phonetic value of the Proto-Indo-European laryngeals

Discussion of the exact phonetic value of the so-called ‘laryngeals’ in Proto-Indo-European has been ongoing ever since their discovery, and no uniform consensus has yet been reached. This paper aims at introducing a new method to determine the quality of the laryngeals that differs substantially from traditional techniques previously applied to this problem, by making use of deep neural networks as part of the larger field of machine learning algorithms. Phonetic environment data serves as the basis for training the networks, enabling the algorithm to determine sound features solely by their immediate phonetic neighbors. It proves possible to assess the phonetic features of the laryngeals computationally and to propose a quantitatively founded interpretation.

Proto-Indo-European ‘fox’ and the reconstruction of an athematic ḱ-stem

This paper presents a detailed etymological analysis of words for ‘fox’ in Indo-European (IE) languages. We argue that most IE ‘fox’-words go back to two distinct PIE stems: *h₂lō̆p-eḱ- ‘fox’ and *ulp-i- ‘wildcat, fox’. We provide a revised analysis of the etymology and relationship among the various Indo-Iranian ‘fox’-words, and we argue that Baltic preserves remnants of the ḱ-suffix found in Greek, Armenian, and Indo-Iranian. Additionally, we describe how *h₂lō̆p-eḱ- was borrowed from Indo-Iranian into Uralic and we outline the relationship among the reflexes of this word in various Uralic languages. Finally, we reconstruct the paradigm of *h₂lō̆p-eḱ- as a unique type of hysterodynamic stem, which nonetheless has close parallels in PIE. We observe that a similar ḱ-suffix is found in PIE adjectives and animal names.