[tied] Re: Singulative

From: tgpedersen
Message: 37660
Date: 2005-05-06

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "elmeras2000" <jer@...> wrote:
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...>
wrote:
> >
> > So, I found the quote:
> > G & I p 246 note 17.
> > "According to Knobloch (1955:213, 1958:240), there is evidence
for a
> > former collective meaning of Greek guné: < *gW(e)na: in
> > the 'singulative' formations such as gunaikós (with a suffix *-k-
of
> > the same type as in Avent. pasuka- "domestic animal", cf. pasu-
> > "livestock")."
> >
> > I need a Greek course. On the other hand, my original idea that
the
> > -k- suffix of Nordwestblock words was singulative seems to hold.
>
> I would like to suggest, Martinet-style, that the suffix *-iko- is
> from *-iH2H2-o-, representing a thematicized derivative from a
> collective *-e-H2 with gemination of the laryngeal. Singulatives
are
> not seldom marked by gemination. That, however, does not explain
the
> aberrant paradigm of guné:, gunaikós, which, to me at least,
remains
> enigmatic.
>

I thought the consensus was pre-PIE -k > PIE -x? So *gWena-k >
gunax, gWenakó > gunaikó ? That still doesn't explain the -i-. BTW
isn't the situation with the root *poh3(i)- "drink" similar, with an
unexplained -i- around a laryngeal?

Torsten