| Indo-european Ablaut |
Article Index for Indo-european |
Information AboutIndo-european Ablaut |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT INDO-EUROPEAN ABLAUT | |
| german loanwords | |
| germanic languages | |
| historical linguistics | |
| proto-indo-european language | |
| ablaut | |
| linguistic morphology | |
|
An example of ablaut in English is the strong verb sing, s'''a'''ng, s'''u'''ng and its related noun s'''o'''ng. The term ''ablaut'' (from German ''ab-'' in the sense "down, reducing" + ''Laut'' "sound") was coined in the early 19th century by the linguist Jacob Grimm , though the phenomenon was first described a century earlier by the Dutch linguist Lambert Ten Kate in his book ''Gemeenschap tussen de Gottische spraeke en de Nederduytsche'' ("Commonality between the Gothic Language and Dutch ", 1710 ). PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATION Vowel gradation is any vowel difference between two related words (eg. ''man'' and ''woman'') or two forms of the same word (eg. ''man'' and ''m'''e'''n''). The difference need not be indicated in the spelling. There are many kinds of vowel gradation in English, as in most languages, and these are discussed generally in the article Apophony . Some involve a variation in vowel length (quantitative gradation: ''man''/''woman''), others in vowel colouring (qualitative gradation: ''man''/''m'''e'''n''), and others the complete disappearance of a vowel (reduction to zero: ''could not'' → ''couldn't''). For the study of European languages, one of the most important instances of vowel gradation is the historical Indo-European phenomenon called ''ablaut'', remnants of which we see in the English verbs ''ride'', ''r'''o'''de'', ''ridden'', or ''fl'''y''''', ''fl'''ew''''', ''fl'''ow'''n''. For many purposes it is enough to note that these verbs are irregular, but if we wish to understand why they are irregular (and indeed why they are actually perfectly regular within their own terms) we need to dig back into the grammar of the reconstructed proto-language. This is inevitably a little technical, but it rewards the effort by opening up literally thousands of fascinating insights into the history of English and other European languages. Ablaut is the oldest and most extensive single source of vowel gradation in the Indo-European languages. We must distinguish it clearly from other forms of gradation which developed later, such as Germanic Umlaut (''man''/''m'''e'''n'', ''g'''oo'''se''/''g'''ee'''se'', ''l'''o'''ng''/''l'''e'''ngth'', ''th'''i'''nk''/''th'''ou'''ght'') or the results of English word-stress patterns (''man''/''woman'', ''phot'''o'''graph''/''phot'''o'''graphy''). Confusingly, in some contexts, the terms 'ablaut', 'vowel gradation', 'apophony' and 'vowel alternation' may be heard used synonymously, especially in synchronic comparisons, but historical linguists prefer to keep 'ablaut' for the specific Indo-European phenomenon, which is the meaning intended by the linguists who first coined the word. ABLAUT IN PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN Proto-Indo-European had a regular ablaut sequence that contrasted the five vowel sounds ''e/ē/o/ō/ø''. This means that in different forms of the same word, or in different but related words, the basic vowel, a short /e/, could be replaced by a long /ē/, a short /o/ or a long /ō/, or it could be omitted (transcribed as ø). When a syllable had a short e, it is said to be in the "e-grade"; when it had no vowel, it is said to be in the "zero grade", etc. Note that when we refer simply to the e-grade or o-grade, we mean the short vowel forms, unless the lengthened grades are specified. The (short) e-grade is sometimes called the full grade. A classic example of the five grades of ''ablaut'' in a single root is provided by the different case forms of two closely related Greek words: We are interested here in the syllable in bold print. Crucial is also to notice which syllable carries the word stress - that in italics, and in Greek, that with the diacritic. In this untypically neat example, we see a switch to the zero-grade when the word stress moves to the following syllable, a switch to the o-grade when the word stress moves to the preceding syllable, and a lengthening of the vowel when there is no inflection. The historical development in pre-Indo-European will presumably have been that the original e-grade, which could be long or short, underwent two changes in some phonetic environments: under certain circumstances it changed its colouring to (long or short) ''o'' (the o-grade), and in others it disappeared entirely (the zero-grade). The phonetic conditions which controlled ''ablaut'' have been partly but not entirely explained, but as the above example shows, the position of the word stress was one key factor. Originally these five grades of ''ablaut'' will have borne a purely Allophonic relationship to each other, but later they came to carry meaning, distinguishing both lexis and grammatical form. Probably their significance was already Phonemic before the breakup of PIE. THE ZERO GRADE
To understand this, one must be aware that PIE had a number of sounds which in principle were consonants, yet could operate in ways analogous to vowels. We are thinking here of the four syllabic sonorants, the three Laryngeals and the two semi-vowels:
However, not every PIE syllable was capable of forming a zero grade; some consonant structures inhibited it in particular cases, or completely. So for example, although the preterite plural of a Germanic strong verb (see below) is derived from the zero grade, classes 4 and 5 have instead vowels representing the lengthened e-grade, as the stems of these verbs could not have sustained a zero grade in this position. The zero grade can be compared to the partially parallel phenomenon in the semitic languages whereby there too the vowels can change their length and quality (including reduction to zero) allophonically. The comparison should be treated carefully, however, as the theory that PIE was originally a consonantal language like Proto-Semitic is highly controversial. THE A-GRADE It is still a matter of debate whether PIE had an original a-vowel at all. In later PIE, the disappearance of the laryngeal h2 could leave an a-colouring and this may explain all occurrences of ''a'' in later PIE. However some argue that the e-grade could sometimes be replaced by an a-grade without the influence of a laryngeal. This is controversial, but might help to explain the vowels in class 6 Germanic verbs, for example. SUBSEQUENT DEVELOPMENT OF ABLAUT Although PIE only had this one, basically regular ablaut sequence, the development in the daughter languages is frequently far more complicated, and few reflect the original system as neatly as Greek. Various factors such as Vowel Harmony , assimilation with nasals, or the effect of the presence of Laryngeals in the Indo-European roots and their subsequent loss in most daughter languages, mean that a language may have several different vowels representing a single vowel in the parent language. Thus while ablaut survives in some form in all Indo-European languages, it becomes progressively less systematic over time. In Germanic, for example, there are several parallel (but still regular) ablaut sequences but in modern English the vowel alterations appear to be entirely irregular. Ablaut explains vowel differences between related words of the same language. For example:
Ablaut also explains vowel differences between cognates in different languages.
For the English-speaking non-specialist, the best reference work for quick information on IE roots, including the difference of ''ablaut'' grade behind related lexemes, is Calvert Watkins , ''The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots'', 2nd edition, Boston & New York 2000. (Note that in discussions of lexis, we normally cite IE roots in the e-grade and without any inflections.) ABLAUT AND GRAMMATICAL FUNCTION In PIE, there were already ablaut differences within the paradigms of verbs and nouns. These were not the main markers of grammatical form, since the inflection system served this purpose, but they must have been significant secondary markers.
In the daughter languages, these came to be important markers of grammatical distinctions. The vowel change in the Germanic strong verb, for example, is the direct descendent of that which we saw in the Indo-European verb paradigm. Examples in modern English are: It was in this context of Germanic verbs that ''ablaut'' was first described, and this is still what most people primarily associate with the phenomenon. A fuller description of ''ablaut'' operating in English, German and Dutch verbs and of the historical factors governing these can be found at the article West Germanic Strong Verb . The same phenomenon is displayed in the verb tables of Latin , Ancient Greek and Sanskrit . Examples of ''ablaut'' as a grammatical marker in Latin are the vowel changes in the perfect stem of verbs.
Some of the morphological functions of the various grades are as follows: e-grade:
o-grade:
zero-grade:
lengthened grade:
SEE ALSO REFERENCES |
|
|