The origin and spread of the ‘i-mutation’ paradigm and the prehistory of the Luwic nominal stem classes

Norbruis, S.

doi:doi:10.13109/hisp.2018.131.1.11

Norbruis, S. (2018)

The origin and spread of the ‘i-mutation’ paradigm and the prehistory of the Luwic nominal stem classes

In this article it is argued that the Luwic paradigm known as ‘i-mutation’ originated in ablauting i-stems, which lost the oblique suffix by sound law and spread categorically, through the identity of the oblique cases, initially to the consonant stems, and later to the o-stems. The ā-stems, which are argued to survive as a class not only in Lycian but also in Luwian, escaped the spread because their oblique cases were not identical. The same goes for the u-stems, except in those cases where the stem vowel was consonantal.

Historical morphology