--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "P&G" <petegray@...> wrote:
> I like the explanation for Greek, but what is this o-H2g^-o-s?
What is the
> initial o-?
I respond to this bit separately, for it's where I have my heart.
The initial *o- of a small number of secured formations is the same
element as the medial *-o- of the numerous formations of the types
*tomH1-á-H2 'cut', *tomH1-ó-s 'cutting, sharp', *mon-éye-ti 'makes
think' (caus.), *tór-mo-s 'hole' (*terH1- 'bore'), *kor-mó-s 'stump'
(*ker- 'cut'). This element, which is generally treated as if it
were a special appearance of the root-vowel, behaves
morphophonemically as if it were a consonant. And that is what I
have suggested it once was. It causes deletion of laryngeals
("Laryngalschwund nach o-Stufe" applies only to this), reduction of
*-mn- (in derivations from men-stems), and a principled placing of
the accent on either the following thematic vowel (in derivations
from light roots) or on the inserted -o- (in derivations from heavy
roots). In some root types the element disappears itself, thus *bhug-
á-H2 (Gk. fugé:, Lat. fuga) and *k^ubh-éye- (Skt. s´ubháyate 'adorns
herself'), and in case of initial /r-/ it appears *prefixed*, as in
*ó-rgWsn-a-H2 'darkness' (Gk. órphne:) from *régWos id. (Gk.
érebos). Vine's analysis of Mycenaean <o-ka> as /o:ga:/ 'leadership'
has made me see the light with this type: the o-element was prefixed
also before roots of the structure *HeT-, i.e. *H2eg^- => deriv. *o-
H2g^-á-H2. If we do the same to some causatives from roots of this
structure we get, e.g., *H1ed- => *o-H1d-éye- > Arm. utem 'eat';
*H3ep- => *o-H3p-éye- > Gmc. *o:bia-, German üben (root of Latin
opus).
I presented the analysis leading to the discovery of this element in
a congress paper, Akten der VIII. Fachtagung der Idg.Gs. (held in
Leiden 1987), which appeared in Innsbruck 1992. A fuller expose is
contained in my thesis from 1989, entitled Studien zur
Morphophonemik der indogermanischen Grundsprache (also Innsbruck).
Additional examples keep coming all the time, as do new information
about particular root structures. In the literature the matter is
generally reduced to "laryngeal loss after o-grade" which is now
commonly referred to as "Saussure's rule", because Saussure said he
saw no reflex of the laryngeals in a few words which all had o-
vocalism (footnote in a paper from 1904). The other properties of
the element seem not to have been addressed by anybody else. I have
found some echo on this list, but other than that, it does not
appear to have entered the scholarly debate. This is a true story.
Jens