Indo-European s-mobile

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In Indo-European studies, the term s-mobile (mobile pronounced as in Italian; the word is a Latin neuter adjective) designates the phenomenon where a PIE root begins with an *s- which is sometimes but not always present. It is therefore represented in the reflex of the root in some attested derivatives but not others.

1 General description
2 Origins
3 Further examples
4 References
5 External links
6 See also

[edit] General description

This "moveable" prefix s- appears on the beginning of some Indo-European roots, but is absent from other occurrences of the same root. For example, the stem *(s)tauro-, perhaps meaning 'bison', gives us Latin taurus and Old English steor (Modern English steer), both meaning 'bull'. Both variants existed side by side in PIE, but whereas Germanic (aside from North Germanic) has preserved the form with the s mobile, Italic, Celtic, Slavic and others all have words for 'bull' which reflect the root without the sibilant. Compare also: Gothic stiur, German Stier, Avestan staora (cattle) - but Old Norse þjórr, Greek tauros, Latin taurus, Old Church Slavonic turŭ, Russian tur, Welsh tarw, Old Irish tarb, Oscan turuf and Albanian taroç.

In other cases it is Germanic which preserves forms without the s mobile. The root *(s)teg-, 'to cover', gives us English thatch(Old English þeccan), German decken 'cover', but Greek stégō and Russian stog. The fact that there is no consistency about which language groups retain the s-mobile in individual cases proves that it is an original Indo-European phenomenon, and not an element added or lost in the later history of particular languages.

Sometimes subsequent developments can treat the forms with and without the s-mobile quite differently. For example, by Grimm's law a PIE *p becomes Proto-Germanic f, but the combination *sp is unaffected by this. Thus the root *(s)prek, perhaps meaning 'scatter' has two apparently quite dissimilar derivatives in English: sprinkle (from nasalized form *sprenk-) and freckle. Another such pair is spring and frog, from *(s)preu, 'to jump'.

S-mobile is always followed by another consonant. Typical combinations are with voiceless stops: *(s)p-, *(s)t-, *(s)k-; with liquids and nasals: *(s)l-, *(s)m-, *(s)n-; and rarely: *(s)w-.

[edit] Origins

One theory of the origin of the s-mobile is that it was influenced by a suffix to the preceding word. Since the nominative of Indo-European nouns often ended in *-s and it seems to have been an essentially SVO language, it follows that verbs were frequently preceded by this phoneme. The s-mobile can therefore be seen as an interference between the words, a kind of sandhi development. So for example, while an alternation between *pekyont and *spekyont (both meaning 'they saw') might be difficult to imagine, an alternation between *wlkwoms pekyont and *wlkwoms spekyont ('they saw the wolves' ^[1] -here incidentally in OV order) is plausible. The two variants would still be pronounced differently, as the double -ss- is distinct from a single -s- (compare English the sink and this sink), but the alternation can now be understood as a simple process of gemination (doubling) or degemination.

This can be understood in two ways.

Gemination (s→ss): by this view, the form without the *s- is original. A habit of doubling at the join of the words causes a second -s- which is understood as part of the second word. This is a kind of assimilation. Obviously this could not happen to related forms which were used in different syntactic positions, and thus the original form without the s- survives elsewhere. This is the explanation given by Sihler.
Degemination (ss→s) by this view, the form with the *s- is original. When it is adjacent to a noun suffix in -s, this produces a geminate. In rapid speech this is reduced to a single -s- which is understood to belong to the noun, leaving the verb without its inital sibilant. This explanation is more popular among linguists, for two reasons. Firstly, because a simplification of geminate ss is also observable elsewhere in the language (e.g. PIE *h₁és-si → *h₁ési: see Indo-European copula). And secondly because most PIE roots beginning with the clusters sp-, st-, etc have variants without the s-, whereas there are very many roots beginning with a simple p-, t-, etc which have no s-mobile equivalents. If the variants without the s- are original, we would be faced with the problem of explaining why the phenomenon was not more widespread.

[edit] Further examples

	Root	Meaning	Derivatives with s-	Derivatives without s-
sk	*(s)kap-	tool	Greek skeparnion	Latin capus
	*(s)kel-	crooked	German schielen ('to squint'), Greek skolex ('worm')	Greek kolon ('limb')
	*(s)kep-	cut, scrape	English scab	Late Latin capulare ('cut')
	*(s)ker-	cut	English shear, sheer, share	Latin curtus ('short')
	*(s)ker-	bend	English shrink	Latin curvus ('curved')
	*(s)kleu-	close	German schließen	Latin claudere
	*(s)k^wal-o-	big fish	Latin squalus	English whale
sl	*(s)leg-	slack	English slack	Latin laxus
	*(s)lei-	slimy	English slime	Latin linere ('anoint')
sm	*(s)mek-	chin	Irish smeach	Latin maxilla
	*(s)melo-	small animal	English small	Gaelic mial ('louse')
sn	*(s)neig^wh-	snow	English snow	Latin nix
	*(s)nus-	daughter-in-law	Old High German snuor	Latin nurus
sp	*(s)peik-	woodpecker, magpie	German Specht ('woodpecker')	Latin pica ('magpie')
	*(s)plei-	split	English split, splinter	English flint
	*(s)perg-	sparrow	Old English spearwa	Latin parra
st	*(s)teh₂-	stand	Latin sto, English stand	Irish ta ('be')
	*(s)twer-	whirl	English storm	Latin turba ('commotion')
sw	*(s)wagh-	resound	English sough

[edit] References

^ Example from Andrew L. Sihler, New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, OUP 1995, p.169.

Mark R.V. Southern, Sub-Grammatical Survival: Indo-European s-mobile and its Regeneration in Germanic, Journal of Indo-European Studies Monograph 34 (1999).
K. Shields, Indo-European s-mobile and Indo-European morphology , Emérita 64, no2 (1996), pp. 249-254.