Abstract This paper aims to investigate the use of the augment (which ultimately traces back to PIE *(h 1 )e ‑) in aorist forms across Armenian dialects and also to differentiate between the augmented aorist forms inherited from Classical Armenian and similar forms that emerged later through analogy. The study reveals that despite the general tendency for the augment to become obsolete or restricted in use over time, it survived into a number of Armenian dialects to varying degrees. The variation ranges from dialects and vernaculars that exhibit only a single augmented aorist form to those that more or less consistently use the augment for the relevant verbs.
Two types of intensive formations are attested since Early Vedic: the thematic intensive with the suffix ‑ yá ‑ plus middle endings, and the athematic intensive. In Pāṇini’s grammar, both formations are described: several rules are dedicated to the intensive in ‑ yá ‑ ( yaṄ ), whereas the formations of the type várvarti are described as being formed by means of a LUK of yaṄ (by applying a luk -zero-replacement of ‑ yá ‑; that is, the substitution with ∅ (an elision) of the suffix ‑ yá ‑). This paper explores thematic intensives in ‑ yá ‑ through a quantitative analysis of their increased attestation in the Brāhmaṇa s. Moreover, in some Vedic prose passages, later authors gloss athematic intensives found in the R̥gveda with the corresponding form in ‑ yá ‑, suggesting that the latter was perceived as the standard intensive form. The state of affairs in the Brāhmaṇa s appears to be reflected in Sanskrit grammatical descriptions. I will show how the intensive category became the object of grammatical treatment by analysing passages from the Brāhmaṇa s, Yāska’s Nirukta and, finally, Indian grammars such as the Aṣṭādhyāyī and its commentaries.
Two types of intensive formations are attested since Early Vedic: the thematic intensive with the suffix -y & aacute;- plus middle endings, and the athematic intensive. In Panini's grammar, both formations are described: several rules are dedicated to the intensive in -y & aacute;- (yaN), whereas the formations of the type v & aacute;rvarti are described as being formed by means of a L UK of yaN (by applying a luk-zero-replacement of -y & aacute;-; that is, the substitution with 0 (an elision) of the suffix -y & aacute;-). This paper explores thematic intensives in -y & aacute;- through a quantitative analysis of their increased attestation in the Brahmanas. Moreover, in some Vedic prose passages, later authors gloss athematic intensives found in the Rgveda with the corresponding form in -y & aacute;-, suggesting that the latter was perceived as the standard intensive form. The state of affairs in the Brahmanas appears to be reflected in Sanskrit grammatical descriptions. I will show how the intensive category became the object of grammatical treatment by analysing passages from the Brahmanas, Yaska's Nirukta and, finally, Indian grammars such as the Astadhyayi and its commentaries.
This article re-examines the vowel system of Messapic, an Indo-European language attested from the sixth to the second century BCE in Apulia. Given the limited corpus of inscriptions, written in a local script derived from Greek, the phonology of Messapic remains difficult to understand. Through a critical reassessment of the literature and a first-hand analysis of vowel alternations, this study offers a new chronology for some sound changes: namely, it challenges the widely accepted theory of a prehistoric across-the-board *o > a shift, drawing the possible inference that this sound change was still on-going within the historical period; in addition, in exploring the synchronic values and diachronic developments of back vowels and diphthongs, particularly within key morphological classes such as the *-tor-and *-on-stems, it suggests that the monophthongization of certain diphthongs may have triggered other sound changes. This approach offers a more nuanced understanding of the evolution of Messapic vowels and attempts to unify previous phonological models.
We introduce a dataset that contains basic grammatical and syntactic information on each word of the Rigveda. Based on the syntactic information in this dataset, we provide basic descriptive statistics and illustrate its usefulness by exploring to what extent distich boundaries are represented in syntactic dependencies. The results suggest that in Rigvedic stanzas, syntactic boundaries are constrained by distich structure in a systematic way.
