Untersuchungen zur den sigmatischen Prasenssrammbildungen des Tocharischen.

• Author: ADAMS, DOUGLAS Q.
• Position: Review

Untersuchungen zur den sigmatischen Pr[ddot{a}]senssrammbildungen des Tocharischen. By OLAV HACKSTEIN. Historische Sprachforschung, Erg[ddot{a}]nzungheft, 38. G[ddot{o}]ttingen: VANDENHOECK & RUPRECHT, 1995. Pp. xxii + 401. DM 140.

After an introduction and a chapter of preliminaries there are five chapters in which the author discusses the various kinds of Tocharian presents that reflect, in some fashion, PIE present-stem formation in *-se/o- or *s[hat{k}]e/o-. The preliminary chapter sets out the author's views on certain phonological matters that inform his subsequent discussion. In particular, he stresses the synchronic importance of the differentiation of "A-Verbs" (disyllabic verbs ending throughout in -a-) and "Non-A-Verbs" (almost exclusively monosyllabic and not ending in -a-). Though some individual verbs may have shifted from one class to the other, Hackstein, following Ringe, sees the first group as descendant from PIE set-roots and the second as descendant from PIE anitroots. In this assumption Ringe and Hackstein are substantially correct, though set-roots are not the only source of stem-final -a-, particularly when it is not constant throughout the paradigm. Thus there is a small set of A-Verbs in Tocharian that match th ose with stem-final -[bar{a}]- elsewhere in Indo-European: Tocharian AB [acute{s}]uw[bar{a}]- 'eat' with OCS zbvati 'to chew'; Tocharian B kuw[bar{a}]-'call' with OCS zbvati 'to call', Sanskrit hv[bar{a}]- (a byform of h[bar{u}]-call'), Avestan zb[bar{a}]tar- 'caller'; AB ruw[bar{a}]- 'tear out' with OCS rbvati id. (and within Tocharian one should compare Tocharian A ks[bar{a}]- 'blind, dazzle', from AB k[ddot{a}]s- 'extinguish'). So also it is attractive to see in the rare denominative verb-forming suffix -a-, e.g., Tocharian B klenke 'vehicle' and *klenk-a [greater than] (with regular a-umlaut) kl[bar{a}]nk[bar{a}]- 'ride, travel' or sw[bar{a}]re 'sweet' (phonemically sware) and *swar-a- 'please', a reflex of the well known PIE factative suffix -[eh.sub.2]-.

Each of the data chapters begins with a complete listing of those verbs in both languages that have presents of the type under discussion and continues with a succinct but meticulous discussion of the synchronic morphology, including a welcome attention to the accent patterns shown by the Tocharian B data, and a sample paradigm (with locus numbers). The bulk of the chapter is devoted to the "monographischer Teil." In this section Hackstein discusses...