Why does PIE *weydtos give PGmc wīsaz not wīssaz?
compare Pgmc *stassiz, *gawissiz, *kwissiz
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my guess would be that the preceding long vowel had something to do with it (the other examples all have a short vowel before the ss), but I don't have any particular source or other supporting evidence– TristanMay 4, 2022 at 17:25
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1@Tristan You’re absolutely right – it’s a well-established development in Germanic (I added an answer which has more details).– Janus Bahs JacquetMay 4, 2022 at 20:02
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1 Answer
It probably did, but one of the last phonological changes that happened to create what we call ‘Proto-Germanic’ was that long *ss was reduced to short *s after long vowels or diphthongs. More controversially (but no less correctly if you ask me), this didn’t apply to just *s(s), but to any geminate, resulting in the loss of overlong syllables in Proto-Germanic. This latter, less canonical, viewpoint is part of Kluge’s Law.
Examples with *ss include, giving a (Post-)PIE form a pre-PG form, and the ‘classical’ PG form:
- *h₁ēd-tos > *ēssaz > *ēsaz ‘food, carrion’
- *koi̯d-tis > *haissiz > *haisiz ‘command’ (same root as *haitaną ‘call’)
- *u̯ei̯d-tos > *wīssaz > *wīsaz ‘wise’
Examples with other consonants include:
- *dʰeu̯bʰ-no- > *deupna- > *deuppa- > *deupa-
- *dʰei̯gʰ-[n?]o- > *dīkka- > *dīka-
There aren’t many exactly parallel cases, but there are some. As you can read about briefly in the Wikipedia article linked to above - and in more detail in Guus Kroonen’s PhD dissertation – the issue has been mired in controversy for over a century.
Not, however, when it comes to *ss becoming *s after long vowels and diphthongs – that bit is pretty universally accepted.
answered May 4, 2022 at 20:01
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how does this shortening of overlong syllables relate to the overlong vowels? Would it have to have occurred before the formation of such vowels?– TristanMay 5, 2022 at 8:43
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1@Tristan That’s a good question. Given how little we know about the actual practicalities of overlong vowels in PG, I don’t think we can say for sure. Personally, I suspect that the single overlong vowels did indeed come about later and weren’t necessarily a thing for very long before they were then shortened and merged with the regular long vowels (except word-finally). At the stage just prior to ‘classical’ PG when overlong syllables were lost, I think the ‘overlong’ vowels were likely still disyllabic sequences of long + short identical vowel. May 5, 2022 at 9:07