Pronouns and Particles: Indo-Uralic Heritage and Convergence
Year: 2019
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: This article scrutinizes three types of pronouns that have played a central role in the Indo-Uralic question. While proponents of the cognacy hypothesis have pointed to the immediate likeness of the reconstructed pronominal roots in both proto-languages, the skeptical view holds that it may be ascribed to chance and isolated cases of borrowing. Common to most treatments of the pronominal stock, however, is the rather limited perspective afforded to the reconstructable systems these roots inhabit. By departing from the internal development of the pronouns in each language family, this article provides a systemic comparison between Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Uralic in each of the three commonly cited impersonal pronouns, viz. interrogative *ku-, anaphoric *i- / relative *i̯o, and deictic *so / *to. It is concluded that while adstrate phenomena are likely to have caused similarities within both the relative pronoun and isolated appearances of the suffix *-kwe, profound linguistic features are attested by the animacy distinction of the deictic pronouns and the entirety of the interrogative complex. These correspondences have consequences for the reconstruction of both proto-languages by tentatively pointing to both affricates in pre-PIE and labiovelars in pre-PU.
Source: BRILL eBooks
Author: Rasmus Gudmundsen Bjørn
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4239322926