The Caland System in the North: Archaism and Innovation in Property-Concept/State Morphology in Balto-Slavic

Abstract

As described in numerous earlier studies, the older Indo-European (IE) languages and the parent Proto-Indo-European (PIE) language displayed certain synchronically arbitrary, morphologized patterns of suffix substitution and direct deradical derivation, particularly in the domain of roots expressing property‑concepts and states (cf. e.g. Avestan dərəz-ra- ‘firm’, derivative dərəz-i-raθa- ‘having a firm chariot’; Greek kūd‑ró‑s ‘wonderful’, comparative kūd‑íōn ‘more wonderful’, derivative kūd‑i‑áneira ‘making men wonderful’). This phenomenon is conventionally referred to as the ‘Caland System’ (CS). It has been reconstructed for PIE mostly on the strength of Indo-Iranian, Greek and Latin evidence. This dissertation investigates the fate and development of the CS in Balto-Slavic (BSl.) – a late-attested but fairly archaic branch of IE. The thesis demonstrates that BSl. boasts a markedly higher amount of material relevant for the study of the CS than recognized so far. Over 30 new cases of ‘Caland’ phenomena in BSl. (some of them referring to single etymologies, other spanning whole morphological types) are identified and discussed. Some of the novel examples include e.g. Proto-Slavic (PSl.). *dьl‑gъ ‘long’, deradical comparative *dьl’‑ьš‑; PSl. *deb‑elъ ‘fat’, deradical comparative *deb’‑ьš‑; Old Prussian arw‑i‑ ‘certain, sure’, PSl. *orv‑ь‑nъ ‘even’ (i‑stem adjective), PSl. *orv‑es‑ьnikъ ‘peer’ (derivative of s‑stem abstract). New morphological analyses, driven by the CS framework, are suggested for certain well-known lexical items (e.g. PSl. *l’uby *l’ubъve < amphikinetic s‑stem abstract *lewbʰ‑ōs; Lithuanian leñgvas ‘light’ < *h₁lengʷʰ‑o‑, possessive derivative of acrostatic u‑stem abstract *h₁ló/éngʷʰ‑u‑). In addition, over 60 BSl. examples scattered in various earlier works on the CS (written from an Indo-Europeanist standpoint) are gathered, evaluated and discussed against the new background emerging from the present study. It is asserted that, from the Indo-Europeanist perspective, BSl. can be viewed as a ‘Caland branch’ of significant value, effectively preserving examples of almost all relevant formations of PIE date (including, quite likely, the most archaic items such as substitutional first compositional members with *R‑i‑) and – precisely as expected – adding novel components to the system while marginalizing other elements. Importantly, it is also shown that a variant of the CS quite close to the state reconstructible for PIE must have been still active within the internal history of BSl., since clusters of ‘Caland’ morphology are not infrequently found on roots of BSl. or ‘North IE’ scope only.