Programme

The lengthened grade in Tocharian nominal morphology
Georges-Jean Pinault, École Pratique des Hautes Études
The Tocharian phonological system does not show any contrast of length in the vowels. The
reflexes of the PIE vowels *ē and *ō, as well as of the diphthongs *ēi̯ , *ōi̯ , etc. in Common
Tocharian (CToch.), are still moot points, despite some advances in recent decades. In
particular, the fate of these diphthongs in final position, as well as of the PIE final sequences
*°ōR, *°ōN, *°ōs, etc. has been much debated. These issues are partly related to the
interpretation of PIE morphology and to patterns of internal derivation. Tocharian material
has been often used to confirm hypotheses about PIE issues, without due consideration of the
facts that can be reconstructed for CToch. on the basis of the two daughter languages, TA and
TB. The paper will propose a comprehensive survey of the traces of lengthened grade in
several Tocharian nominal categories. Some problems relevant to the reconstruction of the
PIE nominal inflection will also be discussed. To take a single example, it will be shown, after
weighing the pros and cons, that TB ñem, TA ñom ‘name’ (CToch. *ñæmä) does not provide
any evidence for the reconstruction of a lengthened grade in the inflection of the PIE noun,
allegedly *h 1 nḗh 3 - for the strong stem allomorph. The still controversial reflexes in CToch. of
PIE *-ōi̯ and *-oi̯ in final position will be discussed. It appears that the allomorph *-oi̯ has
remained productive as making abstracts, parallel to the productivity of the abstracts in *-u̯ or
> CToch. *-wær, that would have replaced *-u̯ ōr. If this argument is accepted, the Tocharian
data would point to the existence of neuters with nom.-acc. sg. *-oi̯ , *-u̯ or, etc. who stand for
the PIE collectives in *-ōi̯ , *-u̯ ōr as expected according to Szemerényi’s Law, from *-oi̯ -h 2 ,
*-u̯ or-h 2 . The situation seems to be different for animate *-on-, *-mon- and *-u̯ on-stems,
which would show in Common Toch. the reflexes of expected nom. sg. *-ōn, *-mōn and
*-u̯ ōn (< *-(C)on-s).
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