Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: A few natlang questions...

From:Lars Henrik Mathiesen <thorinn@...>
Date:Thursday, June 8, 2000, 13:48
> Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2000 12:12:12 -0400 > From: Vasiliy Chernov <bc_@...>
> More exactly, old IE langs have no special vocative form for neutra and > plurals. PIE non-neuter o-stems (mostly m., but also f.) have a distinct > vocative equal to the stem with /o/ altered to /e/; this form is > preserved also in Latin (_amice_, etc.). PIE â-stems (mostly f., but > also m.) had vocative ending in shortened -a. This form merged > phonetically with nom. in Latin, but is mostly kept distinct from nom. in > Greek, Slavic, Lithuanian, etc. Besides, non-neuter consonantal stems > with lengthened vowel in Nom. usually have no such lengthening in voc. - > a feature partly preserved in Greek, Sanskrit, etc.
That all sounds like some sort of old accent phenomenon, causing different ablaut in o-stems and shortening of the final syllable in a:-stems and long-vowel cons.-stems. Perhaps vocatives started out as nominatives with initial accent? Calling for someone might cause that. Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dep) <thorinn@...> (Humour NOT marked)