Papers by Yoko Yamazaki
Journal of Indo-European Studies, 2023
While the simple thematic ending in 2sg. is relatively well attested in the Indo-European languag... more While the simple thematic ending in 2sg. is relatively well attested in the Indo-European languages, pointing to the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) *-e-si, it is attested with an unusual form *-£i in Baltic. Several previous studies have argued how Proto-Baltic (PB) *-£i could be derived from the PIE *-e-si or whether it is really a direct descendant of PIE *-e-si. This paper will revisit a proposal originally submitted by Brugmann (1889) and later by Rasmussen (1999), indicating that the ending has its origin in a reanalysis of the root and ending of the athematic present forms in 2sg. of the roots ending in *-s, e.g., *es-si > *esi → *es-i 'you are.' The new ending replaces the inherited ending *-e-si with *-e-i, resulting in the new simple thematic ending *-ei in Baltic. However, some problems have been pointed out with this line of approach. The instances where the proposed reanalysis would have happened are limited to a few verbs. Moreover, the new ending that originated in the athematic *es-i more seriously affected the thematic verbs, not the other athematic verbs. The new ending will attempt to modify this original proposal by assuming that the reanalysis could have happened as well in the athematic 2sg. s-future forms, which has enjoyed great productivity since Proto-Baltic prehistoric times.
Historical Linguistics, 2023
Two stem formations are known in the Baltic simple preterit system: the āpreterit and ē-preterit.... more Two stem formations are known in the Baltic simple preterit system: the āpreterit and ē-preterit. This paper discusses the prehistoric background of the ā-preterit. Previous studies have indicated at least two Slavic categories comparable to the Baltic ā-preterit: the thematic aorist with the middle-intransitive meaning and the ā-aorist of the second stem in-a-. Based on the comparison of the Baltic ā-preterit and the Slavic ā-aorist, the Balto-Slavic ā-aorist is reconstructed, while the comparison of the middleintransitive thematic aorists in Slavic and some ā-preterit in Baltic allows for the reconstruction of the Balto-Slavic thematic aorist. Recent investigations have shown that the middle-intransitive thematic aorist in Proto-Balto-Slavic may have developed from the Indo-European middle root-aorist. On the other hand, the origin of the Balto-Slavic ā-aorist remains subject to debate, but it seems clear that the ā-aorist acquired a durative function in Balto-Slavic. Building on these previous studies, it is argued in this paper that the Baltic ā-preterit developed through a merger of at least two different Balto-Slavic categories. The article will also describe both how the merger might have taken place, and how the Baltic ā-preterit might have been organized through the merger.
Lietuvių kalba
The Baltic verbs, Lith. kláusti ‘to ask questions’, klausýti ‘to listen’, Latv. klàust ‘to ask qu... more The Baltic verbs, Lith. kláusti ‘to ask questions’, klausýti ‘to listen’, Latv. klàust ‘to ask questions’ and klàusît / klaũsît ‘to listen’ exhibit intriguing morphological and accentological distributions. For a long time, this has interested linguists as shown by numerous previous studies starting with Schulze (1904). Despite several proposals put forward so far, researchers have not yet agreed on a historical interpretation of the acute tone of Lith. kláusti, or on the historical relationship of kláusti to its cognates not only in Balto-Slavic but also in Indo-European languages. In this paper, all the relevant data and hypotheses available to the current author will be examined again, and a more probable historical interpretation will be sought.
Yamazaki, Yoko (2019). The root vocalism of Lith. dãvė / dial. dẽvė 'gave' revisited. In: Catt, Adam; Kim, Ronald; Vine, Brent. QAZZU warrai : Anatolian and Indo-European Studies in Honor of Kazuhiko Yoshida. New York: Beech Stave Press, 410-419., 2019
Institute of the Lithuanian Language, Vilnius. I am grateful to the organizers of the conference ... more Institute of the Lithuanian Language, Vilnius. I am grateful to the organizers of the conference and the participants there, especially Miguel Villanueva Svensson, for their valuable comments. I am also thankful to Luzius Thöny for proofreading my draft and an anonymous editor of this volume for his assistance and valuable comments. Thanks are furthermore due to Helge Ax:son Johnsons Stiftelse for their financial support. The subscript tilde (˜) denotes an acute nucleus in Balto-Slavic, following the notation in Olander . This form is attested in the Žemaitian and some East Aukštaitian dialects (Biržai and Tverečius); cf. LKŽe. Note that this form was originally anē-preterit in Old Latvian.
Baltistica, 2020
There are two preterit-stem formations in Baltic: *ā-preterit and *ē-preterit. The *ē-preterit in... more There are two preterit-stem formations in Baltic: *ā-preterit and *ē-preterit. The *ē-preterit includes a category called "long-vowel preterit" that is characterized by the long root vowel. There are at least two hypotheses regarding their origin. First, it has been proposed that these long-vowel preterits may have originated from the imperfect form of Narten presents. Then, it has been suggested that long root vowels were introduced through Stang-Larsson's rule operating on a variant of the Baltic preterit suffix *-ìyā-, where a vowel was lengthened and received a circumflex tone in a sequence *-V-ìyā-/ *-̰-ìyā-> *--iyā (> *--ē). The second hypothesis explains the tone variation of the verbs in the root structure • ERK-, • EUK-, and • ĒK-(e.g., sprsti/sprsti, spréndžia/spreñdžia, spréndė/spreñdė 'to stretch' < *(s)prend-). However, this is valid only when the suffix is accented, although the environment for the disyllabic suffix (-ìyā-) must be unaccented according to Sievers-Edgerton's law. What follows is that the disyllabic suffix originated in the root-accented long-vowel preterits, while the verbs with tone variation probably accepted the disyllabic-ìyā-, so that Stang-Larsson's rule later operated on them. Interestingly, some of these have a historical relationship with Narten presents, according to a previous study. This article presents the different historical developments of at least two groups of verbs that form the long-vowel preterits through an examination of the accentuation of these verbs.
This PhD thesis examines a phenomenon known as Monosyllabic Circumflexion (MC, hereafter) from a ... more This PhD thesis examines a phenomenon known as Monosyllabic Circumflexion (MC, hereafter) from a historical linguistics / phonological point of view. MC denotes a Lithuanian or Balto-Slavic phenome ...
There are two preterit-stem formations in Baltic: *ā-preterit and *ē-preterit. The *ē-preterit in... more There are two preterit-stem formations in Baltic: *ā-preterit and *ē-preterit. The *ē-preterit includes a category called "long-vowel preterit" that is characterized by the long root vowel. There are at least two hypotheses regarding their origin. First, it has been proposed that these long-vowel preterits may have originated from the imperfect form of Narten presents. Then, it has been suggested that long root vowels were introduced through Stang-Larsson's rule operating on a variant of the Baltic preterit suffix *-ìyā-, where a vowel was lengthened and received a circumflex tone in a sequence *-V-ìyā-/ *-̰ -ìyā-> *--iyā (> *--ē). The second hypothesis explains the tone variation of the verbs in the root structure • ERK-, • EUK-, and • ĒK-(e.g., sprsti/sprsti, spréndžia/spreñdžia, spréndė/spreñdė 'to stretch' < *(s)prend-). However, this is valid only when the suffix is accented, although the environment for the disyllabic suffix (-ìyā-) must be unaccented according to Sievers-Edgerton's law. What follows is that the disyllabic suffix originated in the root-accented long-vowel preterits, while the verbs with tone variation probably accepted the disyllabic -ìyā-, so that Stang-Larsson's rule later operated on them. Interestingly, some of these have a historical relationship with Narten presents, according to a previous study. This article presents the different historical developments of at least two groups of verbs that form the long-vowel preterits through an examination of the accentuation of these verbs.
The so-called "Saussure effect'' describes the phenomenon of laryngeal loss in the following envi... more The so-called "Saussure effect'' describes the phenomenon of laryngeal loss in the following environments: *#HRo-and *-oRHC-. The fact that the effect is observed in several Indo-European branches suggests that it took place at the stage of Proto-Indo-European. In this paper, characteristic examples of the phenomenon in Lithuanian are presented, and an attempt is made to provide a consistent morphological explanation of the reason why no traces of the Saussure effect are observed in several seeming counterexamples where its operation is expected.
Thesis Chapters by Yoko Yamazaki
This PhD thesis examines a phenomenon known as Monosyllabic Circumflexion (MC, hereafter) from a ... more This PhD thesis examines a phenomenon known as Monosyllabic Circumflexion (MC, hereafter) from a historical linguistics / phonological point of view. MC denotes a Lithuanian or Balto-Slavic phenomenon according to which long vowels and diphthongs in monosyllabic words exhibit a circumflex tone instead of the expected acute tone. It is observed in the following four categories:
Editorial work by Yoko Yamazaki
Indogermanische Morphologie in erweiterter Sicht, 2022
@book{aktenzurich2020ed,
address = {Innsbruck},
title = {Indogermanische Morphologie in erwei... more @book{aktenzurich2020ed,
address = {Innsbruck},
title = {Indogermanische Morphologie in erweiterter Sicht},
editor = {Sommer, Florian and Stüber, Karin and Widmer, Paul and Yamazaki, Yoko},
publisher = {Institut für Sprachwissenschaft der Universität},
year = {2022}}
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Papers by Yoko Yamazaki
Thesis Chapters by Yoko Yamazaki
Editorial work by Yoko Yamazaki
address = {Innsbruck},
title = {Indogermanische Morphologie in erweiterter Sicht},
editor = {Sommer, Florian and Stüber, Karin and Widmer, Paul and Yamazaki, Yoko},
publisher = {Institut für Sprachwissenschaft der Universität},
year = {2022}}
address = {Innsbruck},
title = {Indogermanische Morphologie in erweiterter Sicht},
editor = {Sommer, Florian and Stüber, Karin and Widmer, Paul and Yamazaki, Yoko},
publisher = {Institut für Sprachwissenschaft der Universität},
year = {2022}}