Proto-Indo-European noun.html |
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The nouns of the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE), their morphology and semantics, have been reconstructed by modern linguists based on similarities found across all Indo-European languages.
Contents |
Morphology
The nouns were, just like PIE verbs, inflected by adding an ending (E) to a stem. The stem is the carrier of the basic meaning, and is composed of a root (R) and a suffix (S). The ending carries information about the case and number. Thus, the general morphological form of a noun is R+S+E.
Each PIE root has an inherent meaning, usually that of a verb. Suffixation yields different derived nouns with different meaning (e. g. *mén-ti-s "thought" from the stem *men- "think").
Summing up, the suffix has the role of a derivational morpheme, and the ending that of an inflectional morpheme.
Athematic and thematic nouns
A fundamental distinction is made between thematic and athematic nouns. Thematic nouns have a stem ending in a thematic vowel, *-o- in almost all cases, sometimes ablauting to *-e-. The accent is fixed on the same syllable throughout the inflection.
The stem of athematic nouns ends in a consonant. They are further characterised by a complex system of accent and ablaut alterations between the root, the stem and the ending (see below). This type is generally held as more archaic.
In the 19th century, stems used to be classified by their last sound into vowel or (i-, u-, a-, ya-, o-, yo-stems) and consonantic stems (the rest). However, since *i and *u have been explained as vocalic allophones of underlying consonants1, and what used to be reconstructed as *ā and *a has been reduced to *eh₂ and *h₂e in the modern laryngeal theory, the only real vowel stems left are the o-stems, corresponding to what is now usually called the thematic stems. However, since syllabic allophones or the glides were phonemicized as real vowels in all daughter languages, and all the daughters (except for the Anatolian branch) have completely lost the laryngeals with the side-effect of of "vowel colouring" or vocalization, terms like i-stems, a-stems etc. still continue to be widely used to subclassify athematic nouns.
Root nouns
PIE also had a class of monosyllabic athematic or so-called root nouns which lack the derivational suffix, the ending being directly added to the root (as in *dóm-s, derived from *dem- "build"2). These nouns can also be interpreted as having a zero suffix or one without a phonetic body (*dóm-Ø-s).
Verbal stems have corresponding morphological features, the root present and the root aorist.
Primary and secondary derivation
The first suffix added to a root is considered a primary derivation (as in *mén-ti-s), and if additional suffixes are added, or if a suffix is added to a root noun, this makes a secondary derivation.
Prefixes and reduplication
Some nouns were formed with prefixes like *ni-sd-os "nest", derived from the verb *sed- "sit" by adding a local prefix and thus meaning "where [the bird] sits" or the like.
A special kind of prefixation, called reduplication, uses the first part of the root plus a vowel as a prefix. For example, *kʷel(h₁)- "turn" gives *kʷe-kʷl(h₁)-os "wheel". This type of derivation is also found in verbs, mainly to form the perfect aspect.
Grammatical categories
PIE nouns, as well as adjectives and pronouns, are subject to the system of PIE nominal inflection, inflecting for eight or nine cases: nominative, accusative, vocative, genitive, dative, instrumental, ablative, locative, and possibly a directive or allative.3 Three numbers were distinguished: singular, dual and plural, with a distinction between a plural of collective and one of countable nouns.citation needed
The so-called strong cases are the nominative and the vocative for all numbers, and the accusative case for singular and dual (and possibly plural as well), and the rest are the weak cases. This classification is relevant for inflecting the athematic nouns of different accent classes.
Late PIE had three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. Originally, there probably was only an animate (masculine/feminine) and an inanimate (neuter) gender.4 This view is supported by the existence of certain classes of Latin and Ancient Greek adjectives which inflect only for two sets of endings, one for masculine and feminine, the other for neuter. Further evidence comes from Anatolian languages which exhibit only the animate and the inanimate gender. However, this could also mean that Proto-Anatolian inherited a three-gender PIE system, and subsequently Hittite and other Old Anatolian languages eliminated the feminine by merging it with the masculine.5
Case endings
Here are two typical reconstructions of the case endings. Beekes6 does not give separate tables for the thematic and athematic endings:
| Singular | Dual | Plural | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Animate | Neuter | Animate | Neuter | Animate | Neuter | |
| Nominative | *-s, *-Ø | *-m, *-Ø | *-h₁(e) | *-ih₁ | *-es | *-h₂, *-Ø |
| Accusative | *-m | *-m, *-Ø | *-ih₁ | *-ih₁ | *-ns | *-h₂, *-Ø |
| Vocative | *-Ø | *-m, *-Ø | *-h₁(e) | *-ih₁ | *-es | *-h₂, *-Ø |
| Genitive | *-(o)s | *-h₁e | *-om | |||
| Dative | *-(e)i | *-me | *-mus | |||
| Instrumental | *-(e)h₁ | *-bʰih₁ | *-bʰi | |||
| Ablative | *-(o)s | *-ios | *-ios | |||
| Locative | *-i, *-Ø | *-h₁ou | *-su | |||
Fortson7 reconstructs the athematic and the thematic endings, but lacks the dual forms for the weak cases.
Note the thematic vowel *-o-, ablauting to *-e- only in word-final position in the vocative singular, and before *h₂ in the neuter nominative and accusative plural. The vocative singular is also the only case for which the thematic nouns show accent retraction, a leftward shift of the accent, denoted by *-ĕ.
| Singular | Dual | Plural | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Athematic | Thematic | Athematic | Thematic | Athematic | Thematic | |||||||
| Animate | Neuter | Animate | Neuter | Animate | Neuter | Animate | Neuter | Animate | Neuter | Animate | Neuter | |
| Nominative | *-s | *-Ø | *-os | *-om | *-h₁ | *-ih₁ | *-oh₁ > *-ō | *-oih₁ | *-es | *-h₂ | *-oes > *-ōs | *-eh₂ > *-ā |
| Accusative | *-m | *-Ø | *-om | *-om | *-h₁ | *-ih₁ | *-oh₁ > *-ō | *-oih₁ | *-ns | *-h₂ | *-ons | *-eh₂ > *-ā |
| Vocative | *-Ø | *-ĕ | *-h₁ | *-oh₁ > *-ō | *-es | *-oes > *-ōs | ||||||
| Genitive | *-s | *-os? | *-ōm | *-ōm | ||||||||
| Dative | *-ei | *-oei > *-ōi | *-bʰ-† | *-o(i)bʰ-† | ||||||||
| Instrumental | *-h₁ | *-oh₁ > *-ō | *-bʰ-† | *-o(i)bʰ-† | ||||||||
| Ablative | *-s | *-o(h₂)at > *-ōt | *-bʰ-† | *-o(i)bʰ-† | ||||||||
| Locative | *-i, *-ا | *-oi | *-su | *-oisu | ||||||||
†The dative, instrumental and ablative plural endings probably contained a *bʰ but are of uncertain structure otherwise. They might also have been of post-PIE date.
§For athematic nouns, an endingless locative is reconstructed in addition to the ordinary locatice singular in *-i. In contrast to the other weak cases, it typically has full or lengthened grade of the stem.
Athematic accent/ablaut classes
Polysyllabic athematic nouns (type R+S+E) exhibit four characteristic patterns that include accent and ablaut alternations throughout the paradigm between the root, the stem and the ending. Root nouns (type R+E) show similar behaviour, but with only two patterns.8
| Type | Case | R | S | E | Example | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Polysyllabic nouns | ||||||
| acrostatic (or acrodynamic) | strong | ó/ḗ | Ø | Ø | nom. sg. *nókʷ-t-s | "night" |
| weak | é | Ø | Ø | gen. sg. *nékʷ-t-s | ||
| proterokinetic (or proterodynamic) | strong | é | Ø | Ø | nom. sg. *mén-ti-s | "thought" |
| weak | Ø | é | Ø | gen. sg. *mn̥-téy-s | ||
| hysterokinetic (or hysterodynamic) | strong | Ø | é | Ø | nom. sg. *ph₂-tér-s9 | "father" |
| weak | Ø | Ø | é | gen. sg. *ph₂-tr-és | ||
| amphikinetic (or amphidynamic) | strong | é | o | Ø | nom. sg. *pént-oh₂-s | "path" |
| weak | Ø | Ø | é | gen. sg. *pn̥t-h₂-és | ||
| Root nouns | ||||||
| acrostatic | strong | ó/ḗ | Ø | nom. sg. *dóm-s9 | "house" | |
| weak | é | Ø | gen. sg. *dém-s | |||
| amphikinetic(?) | strong | é/ḗ | Ø | nom. sg. *dyḗw-s | "heaven, god of heaven or day" | |
| weak | Ø | é | gen. sg. *diw-és | |||
Note the unexpected o-grade of the suffix in the strong cases of polysyllabic amphikinetic nouns. Another unusual property of this class is the locative singular having a stressed e-grade suffix.
The classification of the amphikinetic root nouns is disputed.10 Since these words have no suffix, they differ from the amphikinetic polysyllables in the strong cases (no o-grade) and in the locative singular (no e-grade suffix). Some scholars prefer to call these nouns amphikinetic and the corresponding polysyllables holokinetic (or holodynamic).11
Some12 also list mesostatic and teleutostatic types, with the accent fixed on the suffix and the ending, respectively, but their existence in PIE is disputed13. The classes can then be grouped into three static (acrostatic, mesosatic, teleutostatic) and three or four mobile (proterokinetic, hysterokinetic, amphikinetic, holokinetic) paradigms.
Derivation
New words are formed in several ways, namely:
- by ablaut alternations – root consonantism is intact, but vocalization changes, e.g. *ḱernos "horn, roe", but *ḱernes "horned". Lots of PIE adjectives formed this way were subsequently nominalized in daughter languages.
- by alternating accent (i.e. switching to another accentual paradigm), e.g. *bʰóros "burden", but *bʰorós "carrier"
- by derivational suffixes (possibly coupled with changes 1 and 2)
- by combining lexical morphemes themselves, i.e. compounding; e.g. PIE *drḱ-h₂ḱru "tear", literally "eye-bitter"
Notes
- ^ Words like *mén-ti-s are thus athematic because the *i is just the vocalic form of the glide *y, the full grade of the suffix being *-tey-. See Proto-Indo-European phonology#Vowels for further information on the syllabification rules for PIE sonorants.
- ^ *dem- "build" is also reconstructed as *demh₂- which could mean that "house" is actually *dómh₂-s.
- ^ Fortson IV, Benjamin W. (2004). Indo-European Language and Culture, Blackwell Publishing. pp. 102. ISBN 1-4051-0316-7.
- ^ Fortson IV, Benjamin W. (2004). Indo-European Language and Culture, Blackwell Publishing. pp. 103. ISBN 1-4051-0316-7.
- ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=J-f_jwCgmeUC&pg=RA1-PA13
- ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (1995). Comparative Indo-European Linguistics: An Introduction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. ISBN 90-272-2150-2 (Europe), ISBN 1-55619-504-4 (U.S.).
- ^ Fortson IV, Benjamin W. (2004). Indo-European Language and Culture, Blackwell Publishing. pp. 113. ISBN 1-4051-0316-7.
- ^ Fortson IV, Benjamin W. (2004). Indo-European Language and Culture, Blackwell Publishing. pp. 108-9. ISBN 1-4051-0316-7.
- ^ a b Actually, only *ph₂tḗr and *dṓm can be reconstructed, but these forms could have developed from the regular ones (*ph₂térs and *dóms, respectively) via Szemerényi's law.
- ^ For a discussion cf. e.g. Fortson 2004:109
- ^ Meier-Brügger 2003:216
- ^ For example, Meier-Brügger:2003
- ^ Fortson 2004:107
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