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Specializations => Historical Linguistics => Topic started by: musicboy on December 02, 2014, 10:57:21 AM

Title: PIE syllabification
Post by: musicboy on December 02, 2014, 10:57:21 AM: I'm having trouble with the syllabification rules. The syllabic laryngeals really put me off. Anyway, here are my solutions:

(http://i.imgur.com/0snxGi9.png)

Could somebody please explain to me where I've gone wrong? It seems really simple, but I'm still waiting for that lightbulb moment!

Thanks for your help! :)
Title: Re: PIE syllabification
Post by: freknu on December 02, 2014, 05:03:51 PM: What is the problem?
Title: Re: PIE syllabification
Post by: musicboy on December 02, 2014, 05:39:22 PM: Is it correct? ;D I don't know!
Title: Re: PIE syllabification
Post by: freknu on December 03, 2014, 02:48:57 AM: Is this homework?
Title: Re: PIE syllabification
Post by: musicboy on December 04, 2014, 04:31:33 PM: Not really. I'm studying PIE by myself. This is an excercise from Benjamin W Fortson IV's book Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction.
Title: Re: PIE syllabification
Post by: freknu on December 04, 2014, 09:56:47 PM: Ok, normally I would have spilled my beans without even thinking, but I'm attempting to at least try and follow the sites rules of not doing the homework for people, so I had to ask ;)

Anyway, I've never really thought of syllabification in PIE, I'm usually far more concerned with morphemes:

(1) *h₂rnbʰi; *h₃ṛ-n-bʰí (instrumental plural), from *h₃ér-ō m. "eagle" (by Szemerényi's law from *h₃ér-on-s); from *h₃er- "eagle";
(2) *h₂erh₃trom; *h₂érh₃-tr-om n. "plough"; from *h₂erh₃- "to plough", *-ter- (Ø-grade *-tr-) (agentive suffix);
(3) *k̂mtom; *d-k̂ṃt-óm n. "hundred"; perhaps from *dék̂ṃt "ten"
(4) *h₂iuHon; *h₂iwh₁-n-k̂-ós ad. "young"; from *h₂ey-w- "life force, vitality;
(5) *h₂sntieh₂; *h₁s-ṇt-yéh₂ f. "sin, crime"; from *h₁s-ónt- (present participle) "being, existing; truly; guilty"; from *h₁es- (Ø-grade *h₁s-) "to be", *-ont- (present participle, agentive suffix);
(6) *ĝʰēimno-; *ĝʰḗy-mṇ (by Szemerényi's law from *ĝʰéy-mṇ-s) m. "winter"; from *ĝʰéy- "winter; snow", *-men- (Ø-grade *-mn-) (action noun, result noun suffix);

As for their syllabification, perhaps:

(1) *h₃ṛn-bʰí
(2) *h₂ér-h₃tr-om
(3) *dk̂ṃt-óm
(4) *h₂iw-h₁nk̂-ós
(5) *h₁-sṇt-yéh₂
(6) *ĝʰḗy-mṇ

I am by no means an expert, so do not take these as absolute reconstructions, I may have made several mistakes ;)
Title: Re: PIE syllabification
Post by: musicboy on December 05, 2014, 09:24:44 AM: Haha, oh I wasn't aware of that rule. But it's not homework anyway, so whatever. If I ask you anthing about Czech (which I'm actually studying), then start getting suspicious ;-)

Thanks a lot!
Title: Re: PIE syllabification
Post by: freknu on December 06, 2014, 02:20:02 AM: Did the book specifically discuss syllabification? If so, I'm surprised it didn't offer any rules or explanations...
Title: Re: PIE syllabification
Post by: musicboy on December 07, 2014, 04:38:25 PM: Yes it did gives explanations and rules but I didn't understand them haha