"Zur Flexion von ‑vant-/-mant-": A critique of Karl Hoffmann's account of the nominative and vocative singular of the Indo-Iranian *u̯ant-stems

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The nom. and voc. singular of the Indo-Iranian *u̯ant-stems are reconstructed as PIIr. *-u̯ās and *-u̯as respectively, following a proposal by Karl Hoffmann. He asserted that the two endings were analogically introduced from the perfect active participle. Dismissing as implausible the series of analogies that Hoffmann posited as prerequisite for this development, this paper concedes that the voc. sg. was borrowed, but reconstructs the PIIr. nom. sg. as *‑u̯ān(t)s which yielded Av. ‑uuā̊, Ved. ‑vān by regular sound law. Applied to the thematic acc. pl., this sound law allows for the reconstruction of Av. acc. plural mąθr-ā̊ as *mantl-āns, and for the reconstruction of the PIE acc. plurals of the enclitic personal pronouns as *‑nōns and *-u̯ōns.
Original languageEnglish
JournalMuenchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft
Volume74
Issue number2
Pages (from-to)159–187
Number of pages28
ISSN0077-1910
Publication statusPublished - 2023

ID: 332950927