I just realized something that is relevant to the discussion of
whether *eg or *ego: is more original and how one splices the
word semantically and morphologically.
It dawned on me that I grew up listening to my mother use both "I"
and another pronoun in certain situations which I cheekily write as
"Nerzmee" which is just her dialectal way of saying "(And) then
there's me...". When I think about it, this is precisely what *ego:
meant! The verb *e-ge- then would be better translated as the
general statement "there is" (or French "il y a"). Thus we have
*e "here/there" + *ge "then" + *-o: "I" meaning "Then there (is) me."
This explains why it exists in the indicative, rather than in another
mood. Using *ego: in a sentence would be like literally saying "Then
there's me going crazy again" or "Then there's me, I'm moving to
Montreal," etc. We do this in English, for god's sakes.
Now *ego: can certainly be seen as a less abrupt manner in which to
change the focus of the topic to oneself. Culturally, it is often the
case that drawing attention to oneself is seen as a form of arrogance.
So, naturally, "then there's me" is sort of a more subtle and more
round-about way of self-referral without offending your compatriots
or superiors.
So, when I think about *ego: I wonder if maybe the expected and more
ancient **mu was temporarily used alongside it, the former being more
indirect (and thus more respectful) and the latter much more direct
(and thus familial, but going out of style for being too crude).
Let's see -- An Inukitut /uvanga/ AND English /then there's me/ for
Indo-European *ego: and still no examples showing what *eg is supposed
to signify. Frankly, I think this *eg thing is cracked. Hahahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahaha! Nevermind. I need sleep.
- gLeN
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