Thematic vowel

"Athematic" redirects here. For other uses, seeTheme (disambiguation).

InIndo-European studies,athematic vowelortheme vowelis the vowel*eor*ofromablautplaced before theendingof aProto-Indo-European(PIE) word. Nouns, adjectives, and verbs in theIndo-European languageswith this vowel arethematic,and those without it areathematic.Used more generally, a thematic vowel is any vowel found at the end of thestemof a word.

Outside Indo-European, the term "thematic vowel" is also used in the grammar ofKartvelian languages(seeGeorgian verb paradigmfor more information on thematic vowels).

Proto-Indo-European

PIE verbsandnominals(nouns and adjectives) consist of three parts:

$\underbrace {\underbrace {\mathrm {root+suffix} } _{\mathrm {stem} }+\mathrm {ending} } _{\mathrm {word} }$

The thematic vowel, if present, occurs at the end of the suffix (which may include other vowels or consonants) and before the ending:

• *gʷʰér-mo-s'heat' >Ancient Greekθέρμος(thérmos)
• *bʰér-e-ti'(he) bears' >Sanskritbhárati,Gothicbaíriþ

Athematic forms, by contrast, have a suffix ending in a consonant, or no suffix at all (or arguably anull suffix):

• *ph₂-tér-s'father' > Englishfather
• *h₁és-mi'(I) am' > Englisham

For several reasons, athematic forms are thought to be older, and the thematic vowel was likely an innovation of late PIE: Athematic paradigms (inflectionpatterns) are more "irregular", exhibitingablautand mobileaccent,while the thematic paradigms can be seen as a simplification or regularisation of verbal and nominal grammar. In theAnatolian languages,which were the earliest to split from PIE, thematic verbs are rare or absent.Furthermore, during late PIE and in the older daughter languages, a number of athematic forms were replaced by thematic ones, as in prehistoric Greek *thes-'god' versus *thes-o-> Classical Greekθεός(theós).

The thematic vowel technically belongs to the suffix and not the ending, as each suffix is inherently either thematic or athematic. It is also used in some cases to derive stems from roots directly, acting as a suffix in itself (as in the second example above). However, when considering endings which are different for thematic and athematic inflections, it is generally included in the endings as well; see the section on fusion below.

Verbs

In verbs, the thematic vowel is*eword-finally or when the following ending begins with a coronal obstruent (*t,*d,*dʰor*s) and*ootherwise.Here is the present activeindicativeparadigm of*bʰer-'carry':

Person	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st	*bʰér-o-h₂	*bʰér-o-wos	*bʰér-o-mos
2nd	*bʰér-e-si	*bʰér-e-tes	*bʰér-e-te
3rd	*bʰér-e-ti	*bʰér-e-tes	*bʰér-o-nti

For comparison, here is an example of an athematic verb,*dewk-'to draw'. The plural forms ablaut to zero-grade on the root and shift the accent to the ending:

Person	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st	*déwk-mi	*duk-wós	*duk-mós
2nd	*déwk-si	*duk-tés	*duk-té
3rd	*déwk-ti	*duk-tés	*duk-énti

(The first person singular ending is sometimes*-m(i)and sometimes*-h₂,depending on tense,voiceand thematicity.)

Origin

The PIE verb is characterized by two distinct sets of endings: one found in the thematic present and theperfect,and another found in theaoristand the athematic present. Themiddleendings seem like a mixture of these two. The thematic conjugation was widespread in whatDonald Ringeterms "Western Indo-European" (Western IE), i.e. IE excludingTocharianand especially Anatolian. The biggest problem on the origin of PIE thematic inflection is that the thematic endings have more in common with the PIE perfect (which formally, though not functionally and lexically, corresponds to theḫi-conjugation inHittiteand other Anatolian languages), and that the actual etymological cognates reconstructed of thematic presents are few among the verbs belonging to the Anatolianḫi-conjugation. In fact, most of the verbs belonging to theḫi-conjugation in Anatolian actually have lexical cognates that inflect asathematicverbs in Western IE.All types of verbs belonging to theḫi-conjugation in Hittite can be shown to have, or to originally have had theablautpattern with*oin the singular and the zero-grade in the plural, which is exactly the pattern of the Western PIE perfect.

The thematic presents in Western PIE also do not have quantitative ablaut, which indicates their relatively recent origin. This all has caused some linguists to speculate that perfect and thematic present endings go back to a single Early PIE prototype. According to Matasović, the Early PIE stative (becoming the perfect) is responsible for the original form of the thematic suffix*-o-,while the e-grade form is secondary. Verbs forming the underived thematic presents are overwhelmingly bivalent/transitive, and there are no statives in the Late PIE thematic inflection since all the original Early PIE statives either remained athematic presents, or they became Western PIE perfects. It is also probable that some Early PIE middle verbs also became thematic in the Western PIE period, since they lack middle correspondences in Anatolian.

Nouns

In nouns, the thematic vowel is almost always*o,and only becomes*ewhen there is no ending or when followed by*h₂in the neuter nominative/accusative plural. Here is an example paradigm for*h₂ŕ̥tḱos'bear', a thematicanimatenoun, supplemented by the neuter*h₂érh₃trom'plough' for the nominative/accusative:

Case	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nom.	*h₂ŕ̥tḱ-o-s	*h₂ŕ̥tḱ-o-h₁	*h₂ŕ̥tḱ-o-es
Voc.	*h₂ŕ̥tḱ-e-∅	*h₂ŕ̥tḱ-o-h₁	*h₂ŕ̥tḱ-o-es
Acc.	*h₂ŕ̥tḱ-o-m	*h₂ŕ̥tḱ-o-h₁	*h₂ŕ̥tḱ-o-ns
Nom./acc. neut.	*h₂érh₃-tro-m	*h₂érh₃-tro-ih₁	*h₂érh₃-tre-h₂
Gen.	*h₂ŕ̥tḱ-o-s?		*h₂ŕ̥tḱ-ō-m
Abl.	*h₂ŕ̥tḱ-o-(h₂)at		*h₂ŕ̥tḱ-o-(i)bʰ-
Dat.	*h₂ŕ̥tḱ-o-ei		*h₂ŕ̥tḱ-o-(i)bʰ-
Instr.	*h₂ŕ̥tḱ-o-h₁		*h₂ŕ̥tḱ-o-(i)bʰ-
Loc.	*h₂ŕ̥tḱ-o-i		*h₂ŕ̥tḱ-o-isu

Again, athematic nouns show ablaut and accent shifts, mainly between the "strong" cases (nominative and vocative in all numbers, and accusative singular/dual) and the "weak" cases (all others). A few endings are also different from the thematic paradigm; for example, the nominative/accusative neuter has*-∅instead of*-m.SeeAthematic accent/ablaut classes of PIE nounsfor examples.

Origin

There are several theories about the rise ofo-stems in PIEnominalinflection. Two are the most prominent:

• o-stems reflect anergativesystem that existed in the prehistory of PIE, and
• o-stems arise from pronouns.

Ergative theory

Pedersenwas the first to notice that the subject of thetransitive verblooked as if it had the form of thegenitive(asigmaticcase) if it wereactive,and as if it had the form of theinstrumental caseif it were inactive. Furthermore, the subject and object of intransitive verbs seemed to have the form of theabsolutive(i.e. anasigmaticcase).This caused an asymmetry between the valencies of transitive and intransitive verbs, summarized in the table below:

Verb	Role	Nominative system	Ergative system
transitive	subject	nominative	ergative
	object	accusative	absolutive
intransitive	subject	nominative	absolutive

This theory was further developed byBeekesandKortlandt,who assumed that the nominative syntax of old Indo-European languages was formed later and that the case system of the PIE language was primarily based on the ergative syntax. The same ending shared by the nominative and accusative neuter, originally designating inactive nouns, originated from the originally absolutive case, while the ergative was used with the active subject. Beekes claims the sigmatic genitive-ablative developed from the ergative. After the transformation of the ergative system into the nominative system, the form reconstructed as*CC-R-ósbecame the nominative, a new case of subject. Later what was to become the thematic vowel*-o-spread to other cases as well, giving rise too-stem inflection.

Similar theories that assume the ergative past of the PIE syntax have been formulated byGamkrelidzeandIvanovand Schmalstieg.

A related theory that also derives the thematic conjugation from an oblique case form was proposed by Ranko Matasović, who, however, identified the source form as the genitive. Matasović argued that the thematic o-stem nouns were the result of the nominalisation of adjectives, which in turn arose through the reinterpretation as nominative forms of original (attributively used) genitives of athematic (mostly deverbal) root-nouns. For example, the stem *(h)yug-o(cf. Latin 'iugum) was abstracted from *(H)yug-os,which was originally a genitive of a root noun *(H)yewg-s(cf. Latinconiūx).Thus, a phrase like*uk^wsōn yug-os'ox of yoking' was reinterpreted as 'yoked ox'. This theory, like the previous one, would explain why there is much evidence in favour of original syncretism of the nominative and genitive singular in the o-stems.

Pronominal theory

According toJean Haudryo-stems originated from pronouns with a determining function that were suffixed to a nominal base, playing the role of a postpositional article.There exists a number of typological parallels for such a development:

• inBalto-Slavic,where definite adjectives are formed by suffi xing the PIE relative pronoun*yo-/*yeh₂.
• modernBalkanandScandinavian languages,which developed postpositional determination using demonstratives
• mimationandnunationinSemitic languages.

Developments from thematic and athematic paradigms

Thematic and athematic forms were passed on to the daughter languages of Proto-Indo-European. In the most ancient languages, such as Sanskrit and Ancient Greek, the distinction between athematic and thematic nouns and verbs is preserved. In later languages, the thematic versus athematic distinction in nouns was replaced by distinctions between various thematic ( "vowel" ) and athematic ( "consonant" ) declensions, and athematic verbs are typically regarded as irregular.

As a consequence of such language changes, the distribution of thematic and athematic words differs widely in Indo-European languages.Latin,for example, has only very few athematic verbs, while Sanskrit preserves a large number of these. Greek resembles both Sanskrit and Latin in different respects.

Fusion

Even in ancient languages, the thematic vowel is often indistinguishable from the case ending, because the two havefusedtogether:

• Old Latinsax-o-is> Classical Latinsax-īs,dative plural ofsax-u-m(Old Latinsax-o-m) 'stone'
• Homericθε-ᾱ́-ων(the-ā́-ōn) > Atticθε-ῶν(the-ôn), genitive plural ofθε-ᾱ́(the-ā́) 'goddess'

In Latin, athematic verbs were lost, except for a few, which were considered irregular or adopted into one of the four thematic conjugations:

• s-um, es, es-t, s-umus, es-tis, s-unt(irregular) 'be'
• (ferō,)fer-s, fer-t,(ferimus,)fer-tis, fer-unt(irregular) 'carry'
• (dō,)dā-s, da-t, da-mus, da-tis, da-nt(first conjugation) 'give'

Thematica

Although theaof the Greek and Latinfirst declensionwas not originally a thematic vowel, it is considered one in Greek and Latin grammar. In both languages, first-declension nouns take some endings belonging to the thematicsecond declension.An a-stem noun was originally acollective nounsuffixed with-eh₂,the ending of the neuter plural.

• *bʰardʰ-éh₂-∅(no case ending) > Proto-Italic *farβā> Latinbarba'beard'

Athematic vowels

Sometimes vowels near the end of a noun or verb, where one would expect a thematic vowel, are not actually thematic vowels. Either these vowels are placed after aneoro,or they are on their own.

In both Latin and Greek, there are athematic nouns whose stems end inioru(with theallophonesyorwbefore vowels). These include Latinnāvis'ship' and Greekthesis'placement'; Latinsenātus'council of elders' or 'senate' and Greekbasileus'king'. Because these vowels are noteoro,they are not thematic, and the nouns take the same endings as consonant-stem nouns.

• Latinnāvi-s,senātu-s·rēg-s'king'
• Greekthesi-s,basileu-s·Arab-s(Araps) 'Arab'

In Latin, there are four conjugations depending on the vowel before the endings (which include the thematic vowel): a, e, none, i. Although all the verbs belonging to these conjugations are thematic, these four vowels are not the thematic vowel of the different declensions: the thematic vowel is ane/othat has either fused with the endings and conjugation vowel or changed toi/u.

In Greek, some of the Latin conjugations are represented by contracted verbs instead, in which the stem vowelcontractswith the ending (which includes the thematic vowel). This results in different vowels in the ending from the non-contracted verbs.

• tīmaeis>tīmāis'you honor'

Individual languages

Latin

In Latin, nouns of the first, second, fourth, and fifth declensions are considered thematic; the first declension has the theme vowela,the secondo,the fourthu,and the fifthe.Stems withiare treated together with athematic stems in the third declension, as they came to closely resemble one another. Latin verbs are subject to a similar classification: the firstconjugationcontains vowel stems witha,the second withe,and the fourth withi.There are no Latin verbs withooru,and very few are athematic, but they are consideredirregular verbs.

For example, consider the noun endings of the Latin "first declension" singular of the wordrosa'rose':

Nom.	rosa
Acc.	rosam
Gen.	rosae
Dat.	rosae
Abl.	rosā

The vowelais prominent in these case endings, so nouns likerosacame to be known as "a-stem" nouns, withabeing the "theme vowel," and such a word was later analysed as having a stem containing a root plus asuffix.In fact,philologistsnow believe that the suffix in PIE was*-eh₂,with alaryngealthat usually becameain the daughter languages.

Sanskrit

Sanskrit grammar ordains avikaraṇapratyaya(modificatory affix) between a verbal root and the tense-ending. Thematic verbal roots are those with an-ain the vikaraṇapratyaya, to wit, roots belonging to the 1st, 4th, 6th and 10th conjugation classes.

Among nominals, those with theprātipadika(stem) ending in-awould the thematic nominals by this definition.

Ancient Greek

Verbs

The distinction between thematic and athematic stems is especially apparent in theGreekverb;they fall into two classes that are marked by quite different personal endings. Thematic verbs are also called -ω (-ō) verbs in Greek; athematic verbs are -μι (-mi) verbs, after thefirst person singularpresent tenseending that each of them uses. The entireconjugationseems to differ quite markedly between the two sets of verbs, but the differences are really the result of the thematic vowel reacting (fusing) with the verb endings, apart from the first person singular which already had different endings for thematic and athematic verbs in PIE.In classical Greek, the present tense active endings for athematic verbs are:

-μι, -ς, σι, -μεν, -τε, -ασι(ν)

(-mi, -s, -si, -men, -te, -asi(n))

while the thematic verbs took the endings:

-ω, -εις, -ει, -ομεν, -ετε, -ουσι(ν)

(-ō, -eis, -ei, -omen, -ete, -ousi(n))

In Greek, athematic verbs, except for those that end in -νῡμι -nūmi,are aclosed classof inherited forms from PIE.

Nouns

Greek preserves thematic nouns in thefirst (or Alpha ) declensionandsecond (or omicron) declension,and athematic nouns in thethird declension.

Declension of the athematic nounπούς(poús) 'foot':

	Attic form	Reconstructed form beforeδσ > σ(ds > s)
Nom.	πούς(poús)	*πόδ-ς(*pód-s)
Gen.	ποδός(podós)	ποδ-ός(pod-ós)
Dat.	ποδί(podí)	ποδ-ί(pod-í)
Acc.	πόδα(póda)	πόδ-α(pód-a) < *πόδ-m̥(*pód-m̥)
Voc.	πούς(poús)	*πόδ-ς(*pód-s)

Declension of the thematic nounἄνθρωπος(ánthropos) 'human':

Nom.	ἄνθρωπ-ος(ánthrōp-os)
Gen.	ἀνθρώπ-ου(anthrṓp-ou)
Dat.	ἀνθρώπ-ῳ(anthrṓp-ōi)
Acc.	ἄνθρωπ-ον(ánthrōp-on)
Voc.	ἄνθρωπ-ε(ánthrōp-e)

Other languages

Most other Indo-European languages have similar distinctions, or had them in their past. Marked contrasts between thematic and athematic verbs appear inLithuanian,andOld Church Slavonic.In theGermanicandInsular Celtic languages,the theme vowels are often hard to perceive because of the loss of final vowels. However, their presence is still felt, in a manner that defines different ways of declining nouns or conjugating verbs, sophilologistsstill occasionally speak of vowel stems and consonant stems in these languages as well.

WhileOld Englishstill contrasted "vowel stems" (thematic) and "consonant stems" (athematic), this distinction is no longer a meaningful one inModern English,as in other languages whosemorphologyhas been drastically simplified byanalogy.

Etymology

In the termthematic vowel,themerefers to the stem of a word. For example, in the Ancient Greek verbτέμνω(témnō) 'cut',tem-is the root, andtemn-is the stem or theme for thepresent tense.Hence,thematic vowelloosely means "stem vowel".

References

• Allen, J. H.; Greenough, James B. (2006), Kittredge, G. L.; Howard, A. A.; D'Ooge, Benj. L. (eds.),Allen and Greenough's New Latin Grammar,Dover Publications,ISBN0-486-44806-1
• Beekes, Robert S. P.(1995),Comparative Indo-European Linguistics: An Introduction,Amsterdam:John Benjamins,ISBN90-272-2150-2ISBN1-55619-504-4(U.S.)
• Fortson, Benjamin W. IV (2004),Indo-European Language and Culture,Blackwell Publishing,ISBN1-4051-0316-7
• Gamkrelidze, Tamaz;Ivanov, Vyacheslav (1984),Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans: a reconstruction and historical analysis,Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter
• Haudry, Jean(1982),Prehistoire de la flexion nominale indo-européenne(in French), Lyon: Institut d'études indo-européennes de l'Université Jean Moulin
• Kloekhorst, Alwin(2008),Etymological Dictionary of the Hittite Inherited Lexicon,Leiden: Brill
• Matthias Fritz,Michael Meier-Brügger:Indogermanische Sprachwissenschaft.Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2021 (10., völlig neu bearbeitete Auflage), ISBN 978-3-11-059832-2
• Pedersen, Holger(1907), "Neues und nachträgliches",Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung(in German),40:129–217
• Matasović, Ranko(2012),Clause alignment in Proto-Indo-European(PDF)
• Schmalstieg, William R. (1997), "The Origin of the Neuter Nominative-Accusative Singular In *-OM.",Journal of Indo-European Studies,25:401–407