On 2006-08-30 00:41, tgpedersen wrote:
>> The only sure case of an
>> unreduplicated perfect (both in the singular and in the plural) is
>> *woid-/*wid-,
>
> Germanic preterito-presents. Ch.Sl. mogU.
This verb reflects the root *magH-, which would have shown no ablaut
alternations in Germanic or Slavic (Slavic, on the whole, shows no
traces of the PIE perfect except the isolated case of *ve^de^ <
*woid-h2a-i). I was talking of _sure_ examples of unreduplicated
perfects. Germanic is demonstrably known to have given up reduplication
in some cases, and the unreduplicated preterites of several classes of
strong verbs correspond to reduplicated perfects elsewhere. Hence the
justified doubts as to the evidential value of the absence of
reduplication in that branch. In the languages that have preserved the
perfect as a fully independent grammatical category (Greek, Vedic)
reduplication is obligatory, *woid- being the sole exception.
Piotr