Books by Martin Joachim Kümmel
"Unter der Leitung von Helmut Rix und der Mitarbeit vieler anderer bearbeitet von Martin Kümmel, ... more "Unter der Leitung von Helmut Rix und der Mitarbeit vieler anderer bearbeitet von Martin Kümmel, Thomas Zehnder, Reiner Lipp, Brigitte Schirmer. Wiesbaden: Reichert 1998. Zweite, erweiterte und verbesserte Auflage bearbeitet von Martin Kümmel und Helmut Rix."
Papers by Martin Joachim Kümmel
Acta Linguistica Petropolitana 18/1, 2022
More than hundred years after the partial confirmation of the laryngeal theory by the Hittite evi... more More than hundred years after the partial confirmation of the laryngeal theory by the Hittite evidence this aspect of the phonological reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European has remained one of the most controversial ones. While there is widespread agreement about the reconstruction of three “laryngeals”, their phonological interpretation is less clear. Recently, two radically different new interpretations have been proposed: 1) a reconstruction of just one “glottal fricative” (corresponding to *h₂) by Pyysalo [2013] with sharp critique of most assumptions of the received theory, and 2) a reinterpretation of *h₂ and *h₃ as uvular stops by Kloekhorst [2018], mainly based on their continuation as velar stops in Lycian and Carian. While the former proposal suffers from severe methodological weaknesses and is therefore not further discussed here, the latter seems more promising, as it is based on the usual methodology of comparative reconstruction applied to the actual evidence of Anatolian. After reviewing the most crucial general evidence for the reconstruction of “laryngeals”, especially cases of preserved consonants (including hitherto rarely considered evidence from Iranic), the arguments for uvular stops are discussed. Some problematic phonetic details of Kloekhorst’s proposal are criticized, with the result that a reinterpretation according to this critique may even strengthen the general idea of uvular stops. Especially the assumption of *h₃ being a labialized fortis is rejected, instead it is argued that the evidence points to a non-labialized lenis obstruent, thus introducing a distinction typical for stops within the IE system. At the end, remaining problems are discussed, and an alternative scenario for the Anatolian development is mentioned (though not extensively discussed). The conclusion is that uvular stops might indeed be the original value of PIE *h₂ and *h₃ but they might have become uvular fricatives already in PIE, or in late Proto-Anatolian, and the stop reflexes of younger Anatolian languages could also be secondary, independent of the original status of the PIE sounds.
Tavet tat satyam. Studies in honor of Jared S. Klein on the occasion of his seventieth birthday, 2016
Sahasram ati srajas. Indo-Iranian and Indo-European studies in honor of Stephanie W. Jamison, 2016
Language dispersal beyond farming, ed. by M. Robbeets, A. Savelyev
The article investigates the agricultural lexicon of Indo-Iranian, especially its earlier records... more The article investigates the agricultural lexicon of Indo-Iranian, especially its earlier records, and what it may tell us about the spread of farming. After some general remarks on " Neolithic " vocabulary, a short overview of the animal husbandry terminology shows that this field of vocabulary was evidently well-established in Proto-Indo-Iranian, with many cognate terms. Words for cattle, horses, sheep and goats are well developed and mostly inherited, while evidence for pigs is more limited, ad the words for donkey and camel look like common loans. A more extensive discussion of plant terminology reveals that while some generic terms for grain are inherited, more specific words for different kinds of cereals show few inherited terms and/or irregular variation, and the same is even clearer for pulses and some other vegetables. The terminology for agricultural terminology is largely different from that of most European branches of Indo-European. The conclusion is that the cultural background behind these linguistic data points to spreading of a mainly pastoralist culture in the case of Indo-Iranian.
Hrozný and Hittite: The first hundred years
Many Hittite verbs in -ja-show a 3 rd singular present in -ia-Iz-zi and similar forms. These have... more Many Hittite verbs in -ja-show a 3 rd singular present in -ia-Iz-zi and similar forms. These have been explained as resulting from Luwian influence. However, the phenomenon also occurs in cases where such an influence in improbable, and is extremely widespread. The distribution of forms written with -ia-I° points to an innovation for older-i-e-I°, parallel to slightly earlier variant writings with -ia-a° in the same forms (while other forms always only had -ia-a°). It is argued that this variation is best explained by phonetic similarity of /ja/ and /je/ resulting in the possibility of using -ia-for /je/ and thus allowing to write -ia-I° in the sense of -je-e°. Thus, there was just a graphical innovation but no real linguistic change.
The Germanic word family of Gothic þagkjan 'think' has been connected to a PIE root meaning 'to p... more The Germanic word family of Gothic þagkjan 'think' has been connected to a PIE root meaning 'to pull' via an intermediate meaning 'to weigh' attested for derivatives of this root. However, there is a phonological obstacle for this semantically plausible connection: the root must be reconstructed as *tengʱ-with a final aspirate which should yield Germanic *ng and not *nk, whence the rejection of this etymology in recent dictionaries. A similar situation is found in the case of Old Frisian diunk, ON døkkr, OHG tunchal 'dark' , obviously related to Hittite dankui-'dark' for which Kloekhorst (2008: 829) reconstructs PIE *dʰengʷ-(with final media); however, Middle Welsh deweint 'night' < Proto-Celtic *dangwantī-can also be compared and clearly presupposes *dʰn̥ gʷʱ-with an aspirate which would allow further connections including Germanic words with *ng. In both cases we find a voiceless stop after a nasal instead of an expected voiced stop and inner-Germanic variation. Variation of stops after nasals is in fact rather widespread in Germanic and calls for an explanation. Since previous explanations are only partly helpful, a new approach is proposed according to which stops after nasals first merged in *T which was then voiced except when immediately preceding the accent. This scenario would account for the variation and enable us to accept some attractive etymologies .
Proceedings of the 27th Annual UCLA Indo-European Conference, Los Angeles, October 23rd ad 24th, 2015. ed. by David M. Goldstein, Stephanie Jamison, Brent Vine. Bremen: Hempen, 2016
Thomas Krisch, Stefan Niederreiter (Hrsg.), "Diachronie und Sprachvergleich". Beiträge aus der Arbeitsgruppe „historisch-vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft“ bei der 40. Österreichischen Linguistiktagung 2013 in Salzburg, 2015
The Oxford Handbook of Historical Phonology, ed. by P. Honeybone and J. C. Salmons, Dec 2014
This chapter discusses the use of typological arguments in historical phonology, concentrating on... more This chapter discusses the use of typological arguments in historical phonology, concentrating on the evaluation of
hypotheses by typological considerations rather than other kinds of relations between typology and sound change.
After a general introduction, this is exemplified by a case study about the ‘glottalic’ reconstruction of Proto-Indo-
European stops. The problem is first introduced, then the proposed reconstructions are evaluated from both a
synchronic and a diachronic typological perspective, followed by a summary of both and an attempt to find a
solution taking into account the typological arguments. In the conclusion, the usefulness of typology in accounts of
sound change is discussed from a general theoretical perspective, including the problem of whether our present
knowledge of diachronic phonological typology is sufficient.
Submitted for the Proceedings of the Colloquium "Sprache und Metrik in Diachronie und Synchronie"... more Submitted for the Proceedings of the Colloquium "Sprache und Metrik in Diachronie und Synchronie", München 2012.
Bei der linguistischen Interpretation historischer Sprachdaten sind natürlich wie bei jeder Sprac... more Bei der linguistischen Interpretation historischer Sprachdaten sind natürlich wie bei jeder Sprache zunächst sprachinterne und generelle Argumente wesentlich, also die sogenannte kombinatorische Methode. Daneben kann aber auch der externe Vergleich mit anderen, verwandten Sprachen helfen, der als etymologische Methode bezeichnet werden kann. Diese Methode führt zu Lautentsprechungen zwischen Sprachen. Um diese primär etymologisch ermittelten Lautgesetze zu plausiblen Hypothesen über die historische Realität zu machen, genügen aber bloße Entsprechungsregeln nicht, sondern es müssen auch die einzelnen phonologischen Prozesse expliziert werden, die die Entsprechung hervorgerufen haben (Eichner 1980, _ hat dies das "glass box-Verfahren" genannt). Bei der Deutung dieser Prozesse spielt die allgemeine Phonologie als Korrektiv der Etymologie eine wichtige Rolle. Besonders gilt dies für spärlich bezeugte historische Kleinkorpussprachen, in denen nämlich etymologischen Argumenten mangels interner Vergleichsdaten naturgemäß mehr Gewicht zukommt.
Uploads
Books by Martin Joachim Kümmel
Papers by Martin Joachim Kümmel
hypotheses by typological considerations rather than other kinds of relations between typology and sound change.
After a general introduction, this is exemplified by a case study about the ‘glottalic’ reconstruction of Proto-Indo-
European stops. The problem is first introduced, then the proposed reconstructions are evaluated from both a
synchronic and a diachronic typological perspective, followed by a summary of both and an attempt to find a
solution taking into account the typological arguments. In the conclusion, the usefulness of typology in accounts of
sound change is discussed from a general theoretical perspective, including the problem of whether our present
knowledge of diachronic phonological typology is sufficient.
hypotheses by typological considerations rather than other kinds of relations between typology and sound change.
After a general introduction, this is exemplified by a case study about the ‘glottalic’ reconstruction of Proto-Indo-
European stops. The problem is first introduced, then the proposed reconstructions are evaluated from both a
synchronic and a diachronic typological perspective, followed by a summary of both and an attempt to find a
solution taking into account the typological arguments. In the conclusion, the usefulness of typology in accounts of
sound change is discussed from a general theoretical perspective, including the problem of whether our present
knowledge of diachronic phonological typology is sufficient.
Handout and data table added as additional files.
In some other cases, even root suppletion seems to exist: For ‘water’ in Vedic, Lubotsky (2013) has proposed that vā́r and udán- belonged to one paradigm. He derives this from a (pre)-PIE non-suppletive paradigm by the application of a special PIE sound law.
Such cases and the Indo-Iranian development shall be discussed in my contribution: What kind of developments can be reconstructed, and in which stages? Which factors may have influenced these developments?
Der Ausgangspunkt sollen interne „Unregelmäßigkeiten“ des indoiranischen Verbums sein, die durch Vergleich mit dem Griechischen keine Aufhellung erfahren, jedoch vielfach direkt oder indirekt mit anatolischen Besonderheiten verbunden werden können. Solche Besonderheiten sind: das besondere Ablautverhalten des Wurzelaorists (schwacher Stamm mit Wurzelnullstufe nur in der 3. Pl., „akrostatische“ Optative im Avestischen); die Keimzelle des vedischen „Prekativs“, die 3. Sg. Optativ Aorist auf -s (Aktiv) bzw. -sta (Medium); die Endung der 3. Pl. Optativ ved. -ur = av. -rš; der problematische Status des Optativs s-Aorist im Vedischen; die Existenz von Medialformen mit abweichenden „Stativ“-Endungen.
Das dünkt mich dunkel: Germanische etymologische Probleme. In: Bjarne Simmelkjær Sandgaard Hansen, Benedicte Nielsen Whitehead, Thomas Olander & Birgit Anette Olsen (eds.), Etymology and the European lexicon. Proceedings of the 14th Fachtagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft, 17-22 September 2012, Copenhagen. Wiesbaden: Reichert, 219-234.
For original scripts I have partly used ALPHABETUM Unicode by Juan José Marcos.
The origins of the Indo-European language family are hotly disputed. Bayesian phylogenetic analyses of core vocabulary have produced conflicting results, with some supporting a farming expansion out of Anatolia ~9000 years before present (yr B.P.), while others support a spread with horse-based pastoralism out of the Pontic-Caspian Steppe ~6000 yr B.P. Here we present an extensive database of Indo-European core vocabulary that eliminates past inconsistencies in cognate coding. Ancestry-enabled phylogenetic analysis of this dataset indicates that few ancient languages are direct ancestors of modern clades and produces a root age of ~8120 yr B.P. for the family. Although this date is not consistent with the Steppe hypothesis, it does not rule out an initial homeland south of the Caucasus, with a subsequent branch northward onto the steppe and then across Europe. We reconcile this hybrid hypothesis with recently published ancient DNA evidence from the steppe and the northern Fertile Crescent.