| present tense |
future tense |
infinitive |
|
| Sanskrit |
युनकति पुनाति |
योकश्ष्यति पविष्यति |
योकतुम् पवितम |
| Transliterated |
yunakti 'joins' punAti ' cleanses' |
yoksyati 'will join' pavisyati 'will cleanse' |
yoktum 'to join' pavitum 'to cleanse' |
| remove infixes and endings |
yuk with infix punA? |
yok pavi? |
yok pavi? |
| reconstruct back |
zero grade with infix na pu (zero grade) + na + whatever X lengthens the vowel |
o-grade (goes back to *eu) pav < *peu, but with an i (why? call it X) |
o-grade (goes back to *eu) pav < *peu, but again i (why? call it X) |
| Saussure's observed underlying structure |
*yu-na-k-ti *pu-na-X-ti |
*yeuk-syati *peuX-syati |
*yeuk-tum *peuX-tum |
| Underlying structure more generally
represented |
*CV-na-C-ti *CV-na-X-ti |
*CVC-syati *CVX-syati |
*CVC-tum *CVX-tum |
| Remove the -na- infix from Saussure's
underlying structure to see root structure |
*yu-k-ti *pu-X-ti remember: X is a variable, not a specific sound |
*yeuk-syati *peuX-syati |
*yeuk-tum *peuX-tum |
| More generally represented |
*CVC-ti *CVX-ti |
*CVC-syati *CVX-syati |
*CVC-tum *CVX-tum |
| conclusion |
k corresponds to X: that will reduce
the number of different paradigms (a good thing) ... |
... something caused X ... |
... but it's not there, so let's hypothesize
it into existence: laryngeal! (he just labeled it as a
missing phoneme) |
Just for yuks.