PIE phonology MOC

Thorn clusters

The development of so-called thorn clusters or þ-clusters is a major problem in PIE phonology. The root of the issue is Sanskrit and Greek evidence three-way phonemic contrast in the PIE context K_ that occurred nowhere else in the proto-language.¹

1. Typically, in this position a Sanskrit /S/ reflects a Greek σ
   • Sanskrit dakṣiṇas ”right hand” ≈ Greek δεξῐός (< PIE deḱsi-)
2. Likewise typically a Sanskrit /T/ reflects a Greek τ or θ
   • Sanskrit aṣṭáu ”eight” ≈ Greek ὀκτώ (< PIE oḱtṓw)
3. However, there is a group of words with a sibilant /S/ in Sanskrit and a coronal τ or θ in Greek
   • Sanskrit ṛ́kṣa ”bear” ≈ Greek ἄρκτος
   • Sanskrit kṣám ”ground” ≈ Greek χθών

The problem of þ-clusters arises from the need to explain this phenomenon.

Brugmann

Before the discovery of the older branches of Anatolian and Tocharian, Brugmann explained this third class of words by introducing a new interdental phoneme þ (“thorn”) which was contrastive to both t and s after dorsals only.

• PIE ṛ́ḱþos ”bear” > Sanskrit ṛ́kṣa, Greek ἄρκτος
• PIE gʰþem ”ground” > Sanskrit kṣám, Greek χθών

It is this hypothesis that gives the problem its name, and indeed even linguists who do not necessarily accept the hypothesis may use þ to represent the unknown segment.

This hypothesis shares similarities with the now accepted PIE Laryngeal Theory.

Merlingen

The discovery of the more archaic Anatolian branch lead to a new hypothesis. Notably the Hittite forms hartaggas and tēkan suggest PIE h₂ṛ́tḱos and dʰ(e)ǵʰōm respectively. As accepted by Ringe¹, þ-clusters in the later stage of PIE² remained underlyingly KTs which is explained by [[PIE s insertion|/s/ insertion]] followed by metathesis, so that TK > TsK > KTs. The metathesis, and possibly the s-insertion, did not occur in either Anatolian or Tocharian. For example

graph TD;
  pie["PIE <em class='recon'>h₂ṛ́tḱos</em>"]
  sin["<em class='recon'>h₂ṛ́tsḱos</em>"]
  cie["Core IE <em class='recon'>h₂ṛ́ḱtsos</em>"]
  pie-->|s-insertion|sin-->|metathesis|cie
  hit["Hittite <span class='ling'>hartaggas</span>"]
  san["Sanskrit <span class='ling'>ṛ́kṣa</span>"]
  grk["Greek <span class='ling'>ἄρκτος</span>"]
  pie-->hit
  cie-->grk & san

graph TD;
  pie["PIE <em class='recon'>dʰ(e)ǵʰōm</em>"]
  sin["<em class='recon'>dʰsǵʰōm</em>"]
  cie["Core IE <em class='recon'>ǵʰdʰsōm</em>"]
  pie-->|s-insertion|sin-->|metathesis|cie
  hit["Hittite <span class='ling'>tēkan</span>"]
  san["Sanskrit <span class='ling'>kṣám</span>"]
  grk["Greek <span class='ling'>χθών</span>"]
  pie-->hit
  cie-->grk & san

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tidy | en | sembr

Footnotes

1. 2017. From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic, pp. 20–22 ↩ ↩²

2. Ringe calls this “Core IE”. ↩