Re: Proto-Indo-European WITCH

From: tgpedersen
Message: 25170
Date: 2003-08-19

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski
<piotr.gasiorowski@...> wrote:
> 19-08-03 14:09, Piotr Gasiorowski wrote:
>
> >
> >> Is it derived from a causative *weik^-ye/o- "make yield"/"make
weak"?
> >
> > The correct PIE causative of *weik^- would have been *woik^eje/o-
,
> > yielding PGmc. *waigjan- (Verner's Law applies in these
formations). Its
> > reflexes are indeed attested: OE wæ:gan, OHG weigen 'to trouble,
afflict'.
>
> A belated correction: it's *weik- rather than *weik^- (no
satemisation
> in Balto-Slavic). No difference in Germanic, of course.
>
> Piotr
>
Odins-vi > Odense; Viborg, Finnish Viipuri (Russ. Vyborg)

> P.S. The original meaning of the causative verb was 'make fight,
engage'
> or something of the kind.
>

I haven't been talking to those PGmc speakers lately, so I wouldn't
know. Are you sure? Seems to me the "consecrate (to be a messenger to
the other side)" fits better.

Given Danish 'vie' "wed", is Russian 'venchat'sya' "get married"
somehow related (n-infix, as in 'vinco')?

Torsten