Introduction to the Study of Language
Dr. Robert D. King

Fall 1997

---

Answers to Historical Homework (Week 13)

#6, Historical (Indo-European)

	IE	IE		IE
	L1	L2	L3	L4	L5	L6
1	en	jedyn	i	eka	ichi	echad
2	twene	dwaj	liang	dvau	ni	shnayim
3	thria	tri	san	trayas	san	shlosha
4	fiuwar	styri	ssu	catur	shi	arba?a
5	fif	pjec	wu	panca	go	chamishsha
		IE		IE	IE
	L7	L8	L9	L10	L11	L12
1	mot	un	hana	yaw	uno	nigen
2	hai	duos	tul	daw	dos	khoyar
3	ba	trais	set	dree	tres	ghorban
4	bon	quatter	net	tsaloor	cuatro	durben
5	nam	tschinch	tasot	pindze	cinco	tabon

#12, Historical (YP, NM)

A. The easy correspondences are for example:

YP	NM	Environment
u	u	In all phonetic environments
t	t	Ditto
p	p	Ditto
n	n	Ditto
o	o	Ditto
i	i	Ditto

B. More complicated are:

YP	NM	Environment
m	m	Word-initially
m	w	After a vowel
a	a	In some cases
a	e	In other cases, but no phonetic environment is evident.

B.(1) For those "easy" correspondences, i.e. those that don't vary, for proto-YP-NM you would reconstruct the same sound:

Proto-YP-NM	YP	NM
*u	u	u
*t	t	t

It's more complicated for the correspondences a:a and a:e since there is no phonetic environment (like word-initially or after a vowel) that enables you to predict when you get one and when the other. So the procedure in such a case is to reconstruct a proto-sound *a for the cases when YP a = NM a and another vowel you haven't already used, like *æ, for the other case where YP a = NM e. So, in the proto-language,

Proto -YP-NM	YP	NM	Meaning
*nana	nana	nana	man
*tapæ	tapa	tape	sun
*pæti	pati	peti	daughter

So, for B,(2), there is a sound change:
Proto-YP-NM *æ > YP a, NM e


C.(1) When w appears in YP, w also appears in NM
C.(2) m or w
C.(3) The simplest way to state the rule is: YP m corresponds to NM w after a vowel.

D.(1) Two sounds

Proto-YP-NM	YP	NM	Environment
*w	w	w	Everywhere
*m	m	m	word-initially
	m	w	post-vocalically

E. In the proto-language for YP and NM you would have

Proto-language	Meaning
*mupi	nose
*tama	tooth
*piwi	heart
*nimi	liver
*tamano	springtime
*pahwa	aunt
*kuma	husband
*wowa?a	Indians living to the west
*mihi	porcupine
*tapæ	sun
*papi?i	older brother