On the Development of the Proto-Indo-European *u̯ih1-ró-, ‘Man’, in Latin

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12797/CC.26.2023.26.05

Keywords:

Latin etymology, Latin language, historical lexicology

Abstract

The present article investigates the problem of the etymology and development of the Latin word vir, ‘man,’ usually assumed to have descended from the Proto-Indo-European form *u̯ih1 -ró-, ‘man’, but with somewhat irregular and not commonly accepted pretonic shortening of the vowel in view of the cognates in Indo-Iranian and Baltic. The shortening is usually explained as an effect of Dybo’s Rule, but it is pointed out that there might be a simpler solution to explaining the change, namely, the socalled Osthoff’s law, which occurred in the prehistory and history of Latin at least three times.

PlumX Metrics of this article

References

Beekes R.S.P., 2010, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Leiden – Boston.

Delatte L. et al., 1981, Dictionnaire fréquentiel et Index inverse de la langue latine, Liège.

De Vaan M., 2008, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the Other Italic Languages, Leiden.

Dybo V., 1961, ‘Sokraščenie dolgot v kel’to-italijskix jazykax i ego značenie dlja balto-slavjanskoj i indoevropejskoj akcentologii’, Voprosy slavjanskogo jazykoznanija 5, pp. 9–34.

Garnier R., 2016, ‘Dérive postnéogrammairienne des analyses laryngalistes: sur la loi de Dybo en italique et en celtique’, Mémoires de la Société de Linguistique de Paris 23, pp. 159–182.

German J., 2017, Reguła Dybo w języku łacińskim [Dybo’s Rule in Latin], unpublished B.A. thesis, Kraków.

Isaac G.R., 2007, Studies in Celtic Sound Changes and Their Chronology, Innsbruck.

Kortlandt F., 1975, Slavic Accentuation: A Study in Relative Chronology, Lisse.

LIV2 = Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, H. Rix et al. (eds), 2001, Wiesbaden.

Mańczak W., 2012, ‘Aktualna sytuacja teorii nieregularnego rozwoju fonetycznego spowodowanego frekwencją’, Linguistica Copernicana 7/1, pp. 15–30, https://doi.org/10.12775/LinCop.2012.017. DOI: https://doi.org/10.12775/LinCop.2012.017

Mayrhofer M., 1992, Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen. Band I, Heidelberg.

Neri S., 2017, Wetter. Etymologie und Lautgesetz, Perugia.

NIL = Nomina im Indogermanischen Lexikon, D.S. Wodtko, B. Irslinger, C. Schneider (eds), 2008, Heidelberg.

Ringe D., 2006, A Linguistic History of English: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic, Oxford. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199284139.001.0001

Sayeed O., 2017, ‘Osthoff’s Law in Latin’, Indo-European Linguistics 5/1, pp. 147–177, https://doi.org/10.1163/22125892-00501005. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/22125892-00501005

Schrijver P., 1991, The Reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European Laryngeals in Latin, Amsterdam – Atlanta.

Szemerényi O., 1989, An den Quellen des lateinischen Wortschatzes, Innsbruck.

Weiss M., 2020, Outline of the Historical and Comparative Grammar of Latin, Ann Arbor – New York.

Zair N., 2012, The Reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European Laryngeals in Celtic, Leiden – Boston, https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004233096. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004233096

Downloads

Published

2023-12-29

How to Cite

Piwowarczyk, D. R. “On the Development of the Proto-Indo-European *u̯ih1-Ró-, ‘Man’, in Latin”. Classica Cracoviensia, vol. 26, Dec. 2023, pp. 239-48, doi:10.12797/CC.26.2023.26.05.

Issue

Section

Linguistica