Piotr Gasiorowski wrote:
> The PIE stem was, in fact, thematic *swék^ur-o- for the male in-law,
> *swek^rú-h2 for the feminine (not that the distinction makes much
> formal difference in Albanian). The relation between the two is of
> course metathetic, though the details are not clear (at least to me).
> We have the variation *-wR.C- ~ *-RuC- in a few lexemes, so it should
> be something like **swek^wr.-h2 > *swek^ruh2...
By the way, would anybody on the list be interested in discussing the
PIE in-law terms for their own sake? They look like compounds, but I'm
not aware of a satisfactory identification of their constituents; those
offered so far have the air of folk etymology about them. "Of one's own
blood" (*swe-kruh2-) cannot be accepted for formal reasons (no *k^ in
the 'blood' word), and Szemerényi's *swe-k^oru- 'family-head', apart
from requiring some suspect formal manipulations, assumes the highly
questionable semantic reconstruction of *swe- as 'family'. It's tempting
to see the *swe- element here (as in *swé-sor-) -- so tempting that
etymologists tend to take it as self-evident "whatever the second part
means", but isn't this a mere guess in the dark?
To get the ball rolling, what about a connection with *(s)we(:)k^-
'wish', as in Gk. hek-ónt- 'of one's own will', Skt. us'-ánt-/-at-
'wishing' from vás.t.i/us'ánti 'to wish, desire'. Hitt. we:k-zi 'wish,
ask' (which suggests an original Narten root)? The 'father-in-law' word
could be a substantivisation (with shifted stress) of a thematic
adjective derived from the hypothetical deverbal noun *swé(:)k^-wr.
'wish, request' --> *swek^-ur-ó- --> *swék^-ur-o- '(the person) entitled
to grant your request' (when you ask for your prospective wife's
hand)... Any comments?
Piotr