Old Iranian Sibilants: A Synchronic Analysis

Abstract

The well-known 'ruki-rule' found in several IE dialects, whereby s was palatalized in certain environments, is traditionally considered to have been no longer productive in Avestan and Old Persian because s's from sources other than PIE *s were not palatalized. Previous work has been primarily historical, and recent approaches from a synchronic point of view have only tended to confuse synchrony with diachrony. It is shown here that this rule was indeed actively involved in morphophonemic alternation and that its synchronic ordering with respect to other rules has certain implications for the prehistoric developments and the synchronic status of the Old Iranian sibilants. Furthermore, certain of the rules produced surface forms that were in non-automatic alternation, and it is suggested that the apparent exceptions to these rules are of specific types which can be classified along the lines proposed by Kiparsky to elucidate the mechanisms of analogy involved.