Lithuanian ankstì, artì, tolì and Baltic and Slavic Auslautgesetze

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe termination of the Lithuanian adverbs ankstì“early”, artì“near”, tolì“far”< EBl. *-ẹ̄́ has not been satisfactorily explained. In this paper it is proposed that it goes back to the Indo-European ā-stem loc. sg. *-ah2i by regular sound change: the sequence *-EHi/u was syllabified as *-EHi̯/u̯ in word-final position (just as in internal position) and gave a Balto-Slavic acute diphthong *-ā´, *-ái̯ or *-áʔi̯. In Lithuanian this is mildly supported by the ā-stem nom.-acc. du. rankì (< *-ah2-ih1) and the fossilized loc. du. pusiáu (< *-oh1u?). This account has important consequences for other issues of Balto-Slavic historical grammar: i) the double treatment of *-ai̯ in Slavic (> -ě, -i); ii) the development of the ā-stem paradigm in both branches; iii) the origin of the adverb ending Lith. lab-aĩ, OCS dobr-ě; iv) the realization of word-final (long?) acute and long circumflex diphthongs; v) the sources of East Baltic *ẹ̄.