Re: [tied] Germanic prefixes and Verner's Law [was: German "ge-" be

08-08-03 21:08, Miguel Carrasquer wrote:

> Could be- (bi-) be another example? It's usually derived from *bhi-, but
> *pe- ~ *po- (Hitt. p(e)-, Slav. po-) might fit equally well, if not better.

I thought about it too, and I think it's possible, if hard to prove,
that *bi meaning 'on either side, around' (presumably connected with
*umbi < *h2n.t-bHi) was confused with a similar prefix with an intensive
meaning ('all over, thoroughly'). Isn't *po-/*p(e)-/*pi- really a
truncated variant of *h2po- ~ *h2ap-, as in <off/of> and <after> (<
*h2ap-tero-)? Of course PGmc. *af-/*ab- would not have been
synchronically relatable to *bi-, so *fi- wouldn't have been restored.

> There are about 14 pages of be- in the Dutch-Polish part of the small WP
> dictionary, and I got tired about 7 pages into it. The nicest examples
> are:
>
> bedekken pokryć
> begeren pożądać
> begieten polać
> begin początek
> begrafenis pogrzeb
> begrip pojęcie
> behagen podobać
> behoefte potrzeba
> behulpzaam pomocny
> bekladden poplamić
> bekleding pokrycie
> bekoren pociągać
> bekrachtigen potwierdzić
> bemorsen pobrudzić
> bereizen podróżować
> beroepen powołać
> beroeren poruszyć
> beschilderen pomalować
> besmeren posmarować
> besmet poplamiony
> etc.

There are also some nice parallels between English and Polish
(ISO-8859-2) in addition to <begin>, <besmear>, <bedeck> etc.:

below/beneath poniżej
beyond poza
between pomiędzy

Piotr