Verbal Ablaut and Obstruent Alternations in Old Persian

Abstract

1. Since most Proto-Indo-European *-y%presents are reconstructed with zero-grade of the root and stress on the suffix, and Old IndoAryan presents in -yaand Avestan presents in -iiamostly exhibit reflexes of zero-grade, one would expect Old Persian presents of this type to follow the same pattern of root ablaut.1 Unfortunately, the notorious ambiguity of the OP cuneiform orthography often makes it difficult to determine whether a given formation contains fullor zero-grade. Thus passive forms such as impf. a-g-r-b-i-[y] (DB II 73) 'he was seized', n-i-y-p-i-[6-]i-[y] (DB IV 91) 'it was written down', and a-Q-h-y (DB I 20.23-4, DNa 20, DSe 19), a-6-h-i-y (XPh 18) 'it was said', pres. lpl. 6-h-y-a-m-h-y (DB I 7, DBa) 'we are called' could represent either zero-grade [a-gsrb-iya], [niy-a-pi6-iya], [oah-sya-] (~ [0ah-iya-]) or full-grade [a-grab-iya], [niy-a-pai6-iya], [Ganh-aya-] (~ [6anh-iya-]).2 As for a-j-n-i-y [a-jan-iya] 'was formed' (DSf 29) and a-v-n-i-y [a-vaniya] 'was poured in' (DSf 25.29), these could continue either zero-grade *jn-ya-, *wn-yaor full-grade *jan-ya-, *wan-ya-. Not surprisingly, the classic handbooks leave the question open, or offer conflicting views. In his discussion of Proto-Iranian *-yapresents in OP, Bartholomae (1896: 83) notes simply that "[b]ei den Formen aus anund arWurzeln ist es nicht immer moglich zu entscheiden, ob sie hierher oder zu §147 [full-grade + *-ya-] gehoren, da einerseits idg. nn und axn in an, andererseits /r, f und axr zu ar zusammengefallen sind"; as an example from a Car root, he gives amariyata 'died'. Meillet/ Benveniste (1931: 114) likewise state oi mariy athat "la vocalisation mar-, adoptee ici, n'exclut pas mr-"' similarly Duchesne-Guillemin 1950: 638 fn.2 (*amiyata or *amaryata). Brandenstein/Mayrhofer (1964) postulate a full-grade root in fraOiyais and patiyafrasiya, but zero-grades in ag(a)rbiya, amariyata ("d. i. a-miyata"), niyapifojifyaj, and Oahyamahiy (s.w.). However, in the case of k(a)riya-, passive of kar'do, make', Brandenstein sets up zero-grade "akariya < a-kf-ya" (50), and Mayrhofer full-grade (129).