The Problem of Iota in Ancient Greek ikhthỹs ‘fish’

Abstract

Prispevek izpostavlja problem vzglasne jote v starogrškem ikhthỹs ‘riba’, ki v strokovni literaturi še ni bil prepričljivo rešen. Njen izvor se tu skuša razlagati kot posledico izvorne praindoevropske histerokinetične paradigme stgr. ikhthỹs, v kateri je v konzonantnem sklopu krepke osnove prišlo do anaptikse »šva sekundum«, pozneje pa je v pragrškem obdobju metateza prvotnega sklopa dentala in velara v šibki osnovi alomorfijo še povečala, zaradi česar je prišlo do naknadnih analoških paradigmatskih izravnav. Kritično sta predstavljeni in ovrednoteni dve možnosti, po katerih bi opisani procesi lahko privedli do izpričanega starogrškega odraza.This article focuses on the problem of word-initial iota in Ancient Greek ikhthỹs ‘fish’, which has not yet received a wholly satisfactory explanation. It is suggested that it can be explained as a consequence of the word’s hysterokinetic paradigm inherited from Proto-Indo-European, whose structure incurred an anaptyxis of schwa secundum, and the metathesis of the thorn cluster in the oblique stem in Proto-Greek, which only magnified the allomorphy, leading to subsequent analogical paradigmatic levelling. Two possible scenarios of how these processes could have progressed and culminated in the attested Ancient Greek word form are critically presented and evaluated