PIE vowel lengthening by contraction
Proto-Vṛddhi
Proto-Vṛddhi is originally for forming possessive derivatives of ablauting noun stems, with the meaning ‘of, belonging to, descended from’’. To form a vṛddhi-derivative, one takes the ∅-grade of the ablauting stem (i.e. removes the vowel), inserts the vowel e in a position which does not necessarily match that of the original vowel, and appends an accented thematic vowel (or accents any existing final thematic vowel). For example:
- PIE dyew- “sky” → zero grade diw- → proto-vṛddhi derivative deyw-ó-s “god, sky god”, lit. “skyling”.
However, in a later stage of the language this appears to have extended to non-ablauting noun stems that already contained e, which would contract with the inserted vowel to form a lengthened ē:
- PIE swéḱur-o- “father-in-law” → proto-vṛddhi derivative swēḱur-ó- “brother-in-law”, lit. “male descendent of one’s father in law”
The above example also displays the stressing of the thematic vowel when it already exists. It is this later version of proto-vṛddhi which is displayed in Sanskrit’s lengthened vṛddhi grade.1
Footnotes
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This is a slightly abridged version of my first major Wikipedia edit ↩