Evidence for Acrostatic Presents in Old Irish? Ryan Sandell, University of California, Los Angeles 31st Harvard Celtic Colloquium, October 8, 2011 1 [McCone(1991)]: OIr. -ic ‘reaches’, ithid ‘eats’, and rigid ‘stretches, directs, rules’ versus [Matasovi´ c(2009)]: Etymo- logical Dictionary of Proto-Celtic, s.v. *ank-o- *ed-o-, and *rig-o- 1.1 [McCone(1991)]: . ic, ithid, and rigid reflect PIE “Narten”-Present (acro- static present) inflection 1.2 [Matasovi´ c(2009)]: PIE acrostatic present inflection is illusory, therefore . ic, ithid, and rigid must continue other types of present inflection 2 PIE Root Present Inflection 2.1 Amphikinetic (LIV Type 1(a)) Present Strong stem with full grade of the root vs. weak stem with zero grade of the root, with correspond- ing accentual alternation: • 3.sg.pres.act.ind *h 1 ´ es-ti ‘is’ > Vedic ´ asti, OIr. is : 3.pl. *h 1 s-´ enti > Vedic s´ anti, OIr. it • 3.sg.pres.act.ind *g wh ´ en-ti ‘beats, strikes; slays’ > Hitt. kuenzi, OIr. gonaid : 3.pl. *g wh n- ´ enti > 3.pl kunanzi, 3.pl gonait 2.2 Acrostatic (LIV Tple 1(b)) Present Strong stem with lengthened grade of the root vs. weak stem with full grade, with fixed root ac- centuation. Established for Proto-Indo-Iranian by [Narten(1968)], and usually reconstructed as an inflectional type for Proto-Indo-European. PIE antiquity is doubted, however, by [Watkins(1969)], [Kortlandt(1999)], [de Vaan(2004)]. • PIE 3.sg.pres.act.ind. *st ´ ¯ eu “ -ti ‘praises’ > PIIr. *st ´ ¯ au “ -ti > Ved. st´ auti : PIE pres.part.act. st´ eu “ -n ˚ t- > PIIr. *st´ au “ -at- > GAv. stauuat- 1