Quoting Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>:
> En réponse à Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>:
>
> >
> > _miev-_ "day"
> > - sg pl
> > nom mieve mievine
> > acc mevz mievins
> > poss miva^ mivina^
> >
> > _deak-_ "sorrow"
> > - sg pl
> > nom deake deakine
> > acc daks deakins
> > poss daka^ dakina^
> >
> > _zdér-_ "death"
> > - sg pl
> > nom zdére zdérine
> > acc zdés zdérins
> > poss zdira^ zdirina^
> >
>
> What does |é| mark compared to |e|?
Oh, merely length; [e:] vs [e], roughly.
> > _drieku-_ "boy"
> > - sg pl
> > nom driekuve driekune
> > acc driekus driekuns
> > poss drikuva^ drikuna^
> >
>
> Am I right to suppose that the difference of behaviour of the |ie| in
> |drieku-|
> and the |ie| in |miev-| has to do with the number of syllables of those
> two
> words? :)
Njet. It's because old [e:] shortened before consonant clusters, but went >[ie]
otherwise.
> > _zóx-_ "star"
> > - sg pl
> > nom zóxe zóxine
> > acc zóxis zóxins
> > poss zuxa^ zuxina^
> >
>
> Here too, what does the acute mean? I would suppose that it marks vowels
> that
> don't diphtongize where they normally do, but I'd probably be wrong...
Again, it's a length-mark. Should've said so in the original post.
> > On closer inspection, it's seen to be very regular, but the initial
> > impression
> > on the uninitiated must be pretty randomesque. Notice that final
> _-e_
> > indicates
> > an unrounded vowel somewhere on the line from [@] to [1] -
> essentially
> > X-SAMPA
> > [I\].
> >
>
> It looks quite like the vowel alternations that appear in Romance
> verbs,
> especially in Spanish. ex.: morir "to die"
> 1s present: muero
> 3s present: muere
> 1p present: morimos
> 3s simple past: murió
> French doesn't have as many of those alternations (many verbs were
> regularised,
> like the verb aimer "to love" which used to have an alternation
> aim-/am-), but
> it does have some. ex.: venir /v@'niR/ "to come"
> 1s present: je viens /Z@'vjE~/
> 1p present: nous venons /nuv@'nO~/
> 1s future: je viendrai /Z@vjE~'dRE/
> 1s simple past: je vins /Z@'vE~/ (although you'll rarely hear it, except
> from
> someone reading a text)
Yeah, it reminds me of that too. There's uo~o variation too, to keep the
Italians happy.
> Maybe that's why I didn't find those alternations randomnesque at all
> ;))) .
I think it's rather due to your like for all things twisted. :-)
Andreas