Depalatalisation in the "ia"-presents of the "u"-series of ablaut

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Baltų kalbos; Baltų–slavų kalbos; Depalatizacija; Galūnė; Indoeuropiečių prokalbė; Vystymasis; Baltic languages; Baltic-Slavic languages; Depalatisation; Development; Inflection; Proto-Indo-European.

ENTo sum up, the vast majority of ia-presents with root vocalism -au- for -iau- can be satisfactorily explained as secondary. Beside the sources common to all ia-presents with a-vocalism (denominatives, onomatopoeias, inherited causative-iteratives), the most important role was played by the analogy with the zero grade *-ū-. The odd alternation between palatalised *-'au- (<*-eu<-) and unpalatalised *-ū-, fully isolated in the system, was generally leveled either as *-au- vs. *-ū- or as *-'au- vs. *-’ū. In spite of frequent claims to the contrary, the role of inherited *-au- (<*-ou-) was probably rather modest. To return to our point of departure, our findings confirm the notion that *eu regularly yielded -iau- in tautosyllabic position, or at least are fully compatible with such a view. The existence of parallel levelings like Lith. "raũkti", Latv. "ŗaûkt/raukt" "wrinkle (tr.)" vs. Lith. "rùkti", Latv. "ŗukt/rukt" "wrinkle (intr.)" (apparently demanding East Baltic tr. "*r’aukti, *r’aukia" vs. intr. "*rukti, runka") mildly supports the idea that *-euC- >*-iauC- was a relatively late process, but it does not solve the question of whether this sound change was Proto-Baltic or only Proto-East Baltic in date.