Localizational evidence for the restoration of Rigvedic *mimihí ‘measure’.” In Vina Diem Celebrent: Studies in Linguistics and Philology in Honor of Brent Vine

Authors

Dieter Gunkel, University of RichmondFollow

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to provide new evidence for the existence of the 2 sg present active imperative *mimihí ‘measure’ in the Rigveda. Controlling to an extent for the effects of morphosyntax, I show that the poets do not localize the forms transmitted as mimihí in the meter similarly to the way that they localize forms of the same metrical/phonological shape, e.g. did¯ıhí ‘shine’, ´si´s¯ıhí ‘sharpen’, gr.n. ¯ıhí ‘sing’. Instead, they localize them like forms of the shape *mimihí , e.g. kr.n. uhí ‘make’, ´sr.n.uhí ‘hear’, tanuhi ‘stretch’. Thus we should restore *mimihí . I then suggest that *mimihí should be understood as the regular phonological development of *mimh₁d^hi , a form that had not yet undergone the analogical process that produced the ¯ı in Class III reduplicated present stems of the type mim¯ı- , ´si´s¯ı- , i.e. preconsonantal weak stems formed to roots of the shape C¯a -.

Document Type

Book Chapter

ISBN

9780989514255

Publication Date

2018

Publisher Statement

Copyright © 2018 Beech Stave Press. This chapter first appeared in Vina Diem Celebrent: Studies in Linguistics and Philology in Honor of Brent Vine.

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Recommended Citation

Gunkel, Dieter. “Localizational evidence for the restoration of Rigvedic *mimihí ‘measure’.” In Vina Diem Celebrent: Studies in Linguistics and Philology in Honor of Brent Vine, edited by Dieter Gunkel, Stephanie W. Jamison, Angelo Mercado, and Kazuhiko Yoshida, 76-92. Ann Arbor: Beech Stave Press, 2018.