On 2006-08-04 00:32, Joao S. Lopes wrote:
> Reduced form of *h1wesu- would be *h1usu-, wouldn't it?
The fundamental vocalism of this adjective is long, *h1wé:su-, and
*h1wésu- is already the weak counterpart thereof. Any further reduction
is only possible in some special circumstances and need not be fully
regular. The full form of a morpheme may easily shrink beyond ordinary
ablaut reduction in the formation of compounds (many examples have been
discussed on this list); such extra shrinkage may also result in the
simplification of consonant clusters (cf. Gk. déspoina < *dems potnih2
or even ultimately something like *demh2-s pot-h1-nt-ih2), so
compositional reduction like *h1wesu- > *h1(e)su- > *(h1)su- is hardly
odd.
Piotr