The augment of vowel-initial roots and vṛddhi–derivation in the Indo–Iranian languages

Abstract

Abstract The augment of vowel-initial roots in Old Indo-Aryan consists in the vṛddhi grade of the initial vowel of the verbal stem. Although the origin of this feature can basically be explained in phonological terms, as described by Lubotsky (1995) and others, it is pointed out that the analogy of verb stems with full or lengthened grade root might have played a role as well. On the other hand, in absence of relevant forms in Avestan and Old Persian, the parallelism between the augment and vṛddhi‑derivation has to be taken into account if we want to describe the augment of vowel-initial roots in the Old Iranian languages. It is argued that the vṛddhi‑derivation in Old Persian was similar to the situation in Avestan, i. e. simple vowels were replaced by short diphthongs (not by long ones, as in Old Indo-Aryan) and this has to be assumed for the Old Persian augment of vowelinitial roots as well.