言 語研 究(Gengo Kenkyu)88(1985),68～85 Problems in the Mediopassive Endings of Indo-European Kazuhiko YOSHIDA 1. One of the morphological categories most resistant to his- torical analysis in IE grammar is mediopassive endings." The correspondence of present mediopassive endings inherited into IE daughter languages is given below (the proto-forms for the 1 and 2 p1. endings are hardly to be determined because of the variety in forms in the daughter languages, and therefore I limit my discussion below to the 1,2 and 3sg. and 3 p1.): Ved. Gk. Lat. OIr. Toch. A[B] Hitt. Goth. (Arcado-Cypriote) sg.1. -e -ƒÊƒ¿ƒÇ -or -ur -mar [-mar] -ha(ri) -da 2. -se -ƒÐƒÍƒÇ -re/-ris -ther -tar [-tar] -ta(ri) -za 3. -(t)e -ƒÑƒÍƒÇ -tur -thir -tar [-tar] -(t)a(ri) -da pl. 3. -nte -ƒËƒÑƒÍƒÇ -ntur -tir [-ntar] -nta(ri)] -nda As is noted, everywhere present mediopassive forms are attested, simple endings are extended by the hic et nunc particle -i or by the r-element, both of which were optionally used in PIE. In Indo- Iranian, Greek and Germanic, -i was generalized, while in Ana- tolian, Tocharian, Italic and Celtic it yielded to the r-element. The function of -r(i) of the Anatolian, Tocharian, Italic and Celtic mediopassive is quite parallel to that of the -i which charac- 1) I am happy to express my gratitude to Selina Stewart, Fred Biggs and Gudrun Th6rhallsdottir who read an earlier version of this paper and gave me helpful comments and suggestions. 68 Problems in the Mediopassive Endings of Indo-European 69 terizes the primary endings of Indo-Iranian, Greek and Germanic, although in Italic and Celtic the r-endings function as both prima- ry and secondary, which is obviously an innovation. At first glance, it is extremely difficult to establish the original mediopassive endings, especially those of the 1 and 2sg. Meillet's reconstruction is 1sg. *-ai, 2sg. *-sai, 3sg. *-ai or *-tai and 3pl. *-ntai, which can hardly be reconciled with, among others, Hittite and Tocharian forms.2) It is not my intention here to give a perfectly satisfying expla- nation to this problem. Readers may find more questions than answers in this paper. But I will be immensely gratified if I suc- ceed in tempting readers to re-examine their own assumptions on the IE verbal system. Below I will attempt to place my discussion in the widest possible context of IE comparative grammar. 2. One of the most significant contributions recently made to our understanding of the IE verbal system is C. Watkins' study of the origin of the IE thematic active." He argues that Proto-Indo- European had a second series of endings characterized by 1sg. *-h2o ,2sg.*-th2o,3sg. *-e and that the resegmentation of 3sg. *-e as a suffix *-e+zero-ending brought the generalization of the thematic vowel *-e- to the 1 and 2sg. (*-e-h2o, *-e-th2o) with the subsequent change *-e->*-0- before laryngeals and resonants: sg.1.*-h2o *-h2o *-e-h2o *-o-h2o 2. *-th2o•¨*-th2o•¨*-e-th2o•¨*-e-th2o 3. *-e *-e-0 *-e-0 *-e-0 The reconstructed *-o-h2o(>*-oo>*-o) for the 1sg. explains 2) Introduction a l'etude comparative des langues indo-europeennes,232f. 3) C. Watkins. Indogermanische Grammatik III/1(1969),chapter VIII. Of course, his view has not been accepted by everybody. A strong objection to it was given by Warren Cowgill in his lecture before the Cornell Linguistics Circle on November 12, 1981 ("Thematic active endings of Indo-Hittite"). 70 Kazuhiko YOSHIDA Gk.-ƒÖ,Lat.-o and OIr.-u.Later in most languages *-o-h2o, *-e-th2o ,*-e were remodeled by the influence from the corres- ponding athematic active endings -m,-s,-t: sg.1.*-o-h2o *-o-m 2.*-e-th2o•¨*-e-s 3.*-e *-e-t The endings *-o-m,*-e-s,*-e-t are well represented by daughter languages (e.g. Skt. abharam, abharah, abharat). The vowel color of -o of the 2sg.-th2o in Watkins' reconstruction is totally based on the parallelism to the 1sg. -h2o, which is, in turn, posited solely to account for *-o(<*-oh2o). The reconstruction of *-h2 for the 1sg. is, however, more preferable to *-h2o, because *-o-h2 beautifully explains the bimoric *-o(<*-oh2) of Germanic (e.g. Goth. baira<*-5<*-oh2)4) and the acute intonation of Baltic (e. g. Lith vedil<*veduo<*vedo<*-oh2).5) Outside the third person, there is no substantial evidence for an apophonic contrast among the thematic active, mediopassive and perfect endings, so the reconstruction of *-th2e for the 2sg. ending is supported unam- biguously by the Greek perfect ending -ƒÆƒ¿ and the Tocharian medio- 4) Proto-Germanic final syllables preserve a contrast of acute and circumflex intonations on etymologically the same endings as Baltic and Greek, although the intonations are not anywhere directly attested. The circumflex prevents shortening of final syllables in Gothic. If the 1sg. ending were *-o-h2o, the resultant form would be Goth.-o(< trimoric *-5<*-oh2o).For details, see P. Hollifield's "The Phono- logical Development of Final Syllables in Germanic (part I and II)" in Die Sprache 26 (1980). 5) Jay Jasanoff called my attention to this Baltic evidence for the 1sg. -h2 in his Balto-Slavic class (Fall 1983, Cornell). PIE *-o goes to Lith. uo. The change, vedu<*veduo, is accounted for by two rules: "Leskien's Law" (acute vowels in final syllables are shortened) and "de Saussure's Law" (acute final syllables attract the ictus from the preceding mora if it is there). Cf. Chr. S. Stang, Vergleichende Gram- matik der Baltischen Sprachen (1966: 126f.). Problems in the Mediopassive Endings of Indo-European 7 1 passive ending A. -tar, B. -tar(<Common Toch. *-tar<*-tar <*-th2er. Tocharian historical phonology is discussed in more detail below in 8.). The reduction of -h2e to -h2 in the 1 sg. thematic active occurred probably within the common period.6) 3. In Watkins' system, the mediopassive endings for the singu- lar are reconstructed as 1 sg. *-h2o, 2 sg. *-th2o and 3 sg. *-o, which differ from the active counterparts only in the vowel quality of the 3 sg. *-o. Cowgill proposes the same reconstruction in his On the Prehistory of Celtic Passive and Deponent Inflection" in Eriu 34 (1983: 75)." On the other hand, F. Kortlandt believes that the 1 sg. mediopassive ending underwent shortening from *-h2o to *-h2 in the PIE period , so he reconstructs 1 sg. *-h2, 2 sg. *-th2o 6) A possibility that the Hittite hi-conjugation preserves intact the active characterized by the endings *-h2e, *-th2e, *-e has been proposed by J. Jasanoff, "The Position of the hi-Conjugation" in Hethitisch und Indogermanisch (1979) and "s-subjunctive, s-aorist, and the Preterite of the hi-conjugation" presented at the First East Coast Indo-European Conference held at Yale University in June, 1982. Since this is not a place to discuss the hi-conjugation, I cannot give Jasanoff's hypothesis the sufficient discussion it deserves. I will merely say that I am not convinced at all by the so-called standard view that the hi-conjugation is a descendant of the IE perfect. Its recent exponents are H. Eichner, Die Vorgeschichte des hethitischen Verbalsystems" in Flexion und Wortbildung (1975), E. Risch, "Zur Entstehung des hethitischen Verbal- paradigmas" in the same volume and H. Izui, "Indo-European Perfect and Hittite Verbal System" Gengo Vol.12, No.8 (1983). The corre- spondence between Hittite hi-conjugation and IE perfect is in ending shapes only. The differences in function and lexical distribution of the two formations are such that it is practically impossible to plausibly derive the hi-conjugation with the same function as mi-conjugation from the IE perfect with the stative value. 7) In his earlier article, "More Evidence for Indo-Hittite: The Tense- Aspect System" in Proceedings of the 11th International Congress of Linguists (1975: 559), Cowgill reconstructed the singular endings as 1 sg. *-h2o or *-h2e, 2 sg. *-th2o or *-th2e and 3 sg. *-o, but the condition for the alternation *o•`*e in the 1 and 2 sg. was not specified. 7 2 Kazuhiko YOSHIDA and 3 sg. *-0.8) As mentioned above, I think that there was origi- nally no apophonic relationship among the thematic active, middle and perfect for the 1 and 2 sg. endings. Accordingly, *-h2e and *-th2e may be reconstructed for the 1 and 2 sg ., respectively. In sum, the candidates are *-1120, *-h2e and *-h2 for the 1 sg., *-th2o and *-th2e for the 2 sg. and *-o for the 3 sg. Scholars find agreement in the reconstruction *-o (3 sg.), which is everywhere altered to *-to under the influence of the corre- sponding active ending *-t. The original *-o is well preserved in the Hittite a-class mediopassive (e. g. da(ri) 'sits'=Skt. aste= Gk. ƒÅƒÐƒÑƒ¿ƒÇ) and indicated by Vedic present forms of the type adye lies'<*kei-o-i (cf. Classical Skt. sete<*kei-to-i=Hitt. kitta (ri) =Gk. ƒÈƒÃƒÇƒÑƒ¿ƒÇ), perfect middle, e.g. jujuse (<jus-'enjoy') and the vowel quality of o in the Greek imperfect, e.g. ƒÃƒÈƒÃƒÇƒÑƒÍ.9) There are not many difficulties in reconstructing the 3 pl. *-nto on the basis of forms in daughter languages . But the more archaic 3 pl. *-ro is attested in the Vedic perfect middle, e.g. duduhre(<duh- 'milk') and imperfect, e.g. aduhran, where -ran is explained by *-ro+active *-nt just as the corresponding 3 sg. -at (in e .g. aduhat) is by *-o+active *-t.