Programme

The Proto-Indo-European *-VTs# clusters and the formulation of Szemerényi’s Law
Dariusz Piwowarczyk
Szemerényi’s Law is a term used nowadays for a sound change postulated for the Indo-
European proto-language through which a sequence *-V̆ Rs develops into *-V̄ Rø (1970: 109,
155). Nowadays there seem to exist three different approaches to Szemerényi’s Law: some
scholars assume that it operated in a way as formulated by Szemerényi himself (Neri 2003:
20 35 ), others assume that it only operated in sequences consisting of a resonant and *-s
(Griepentrog 1995: 177-179, Kim 2001: 127) and still other scholars deny the existence of the
law altogether, assuming that the vowel was lengthened before word-final resonant (ĕR > ēR)
except *-m (Beekes 1985: 151-154).
In this paper I shall argue that Szemerényi’s Law operated in the proto-language and
that its operation should be restricted to *-V̆ Rs# and *-V̆ RH# sequences only. The assumption
of the lengthening of vowels before a resonant requires a difficult explanation of the vocative
of the *r-stems (cf. Beekes 1985: 99-101) which is easily explained by assuming that the law
did operate.
Additionally, I will show that the development of *V̆ Ts > *V̆ ss > *V̄ s, often assumed
as part of Szemerényi’s Law (cf. Neri 2003: 20 35 , Lipp 2009: 93) as in PIE *pód-s > *póss >
*pṓs > Doric Greek pṓs ‘foot’ (Hesych.), is hardly credible (cf. also Kim 2001: 127 24 ).
References:
Beekes, Robert. 1985. The origins of the Indo-European nominal inflection. Innsbruck.
Griepentrog, Wolfgang. 1995. Die Wurzelnomina des Germanischen und ihre Vorgeschichte.
Innsbruck.
Kim, Ronald. 2001. “Tocharian B śem ≈ Latin vēnit? Szemerenyi’s Law and *ē in PIE root
aorists. MSS 61. 119-147.
Lipp, Reiner. 2009. Die indogermanischen und einzelsprachlichen Palatale im
Indoiranischen. Band II. Heidelberg.
Neri, Sergio. 2003. I sostantivi in -u del gotico. Innsbruck.
Szemerenyi, Oswald. 1970. Einfuhrung in die vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft. Darmstadt.
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