Re: Eggs from birds and swift horses (was: the palatal sham)

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Piotr Gasiorowski"
<piotr.gasiorowski@...> wrote:

> It seems a plausible solution was already available, only I failed

to make a

> possible connection between your *o prefix/infix and this funny

long *o:.

> I'd just like to probe one of the intriguing questions that arise

here. Your

> other evidence suggests that this *o occurs together with thematic

*-o- or

> with *-ah2. The 'egg' word, *o-hwi-ó-m, follows that pattern, but

if one

> wants to explain *o:k^ú- as *o-hk^ú- (ignoring the index of the

*h), an idea

> that I find attractive (if it isn't true, what would a long *o: be

doing in

> this position?), it makes one look for other cases where what

might be a

> Rasmussen *o is found in *-u- stems.

> If Gk. polú- and Av. pouru- reflect a common protoform, i.e.

*polh1ú-, the

> *o has all the hallmarks of your infix: it is pretonic and occurs

in the

> "wrong" place (cf. *pleh1-jo:s). Av. vouru- 'broad' (vs.

compositional uru-

> and Skt. urú-) is another case where a Rasmussen *o can be

suspected. Here's

> a wild guess based on insufficient evidence (:-)) : could it be

that one of

> the functions of *o was to form free-standing adjectives as

opposed to

> "bound" ones found in compounds? E.g.
>
> *hk^ú- : *ohk^ús (root *hek^-)
> *pl.h1ú- : *polh1ús (root *pleh1-)
> *wr.hú- : *worhús (root *werh-)
>
> and perhaps even
>
> *h1sú- : *oh1sús (if the latter is what we see in Hittite)

To posit new types we need solid evidence, not just theoretical
possibilities. Avestan pouru- is a perfect match for Skt. puru- from
*pl.Hu-. And Av. vouru- matches Skt. uru- completely as IE *wr.Hu-.
The variant Av. uru- may be /vru-/ (or /ru-/) strongly reminiscent
of Ved. gru-mus.t.i- with compositional gru- for free guru- (*gWr.Hu-
, Gk. barús). I do not normally see the infix -o- occupying the
wrong position: Gk. tropéo: and tropé:, not *torp-; phlogmós not
*pholg-; ON rakr 'upright' (*H3rog^-o-s) not *ark-, etc. There may
be a case in Slavic rota from *wrot(h)aH2, if that has anything to
do with the rooot *werH1- 'speak', but that's the other way around.

I am very hesitant to extend the o-infix business as long as it is
so poorly understood. There are other sources of o-vocalism which
generally make better sense, but in a general sense I do expect
instances of u-stems to have it, since some i-stems have it
(commu:nis/gamains for one), and both -i- and -u- are allomorphs of
the thematic vowel.

Given the evidence of Gk. ptólis : Skt. pú(:)r-, Lith. pilìs, and
dolikhós : Skt. di:rghá-, I see little probative value in pol-ú-s.
But these are possibilities that should be considered along the way.

Jens