Re: PIE i- and u-stems again

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer Vidal <miguelc@...>
wrote:

>
> On Thu, 15 Feb 2007 11:03:24 -0000, "tgpedersen"
> <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
>
> >
> >> >If so, is the *-r/*-n part detachable from the stem in *-u, *-i
> >> >and *-a?
> >>
> >> No. *-un- is a suffix. Suffixes are (C)VC(C).
> >>
> >
> >Is it true that you have stems suffixed in *-un, *-in, *-an which
> >becomes your various n-stems, and that /u/, /i/, and /a/ become the
> >ablaut vowel, which means thematic stems are really *-u, *-i, *-a
> >stems?
>
> Something like that.
>
> >Because if so, there exists an n-suffix.
>
> No. How does that follow?
>

*-u, *-i, *-a stems exist. They are called thematic stems.
*-un, *-in, *-an stems exist. They are called n-stems.
Semantically, there exists an indefinte/definite relationship between
the two types of stems; Latin catus/cato:, Germanic strong/weak
adjectives.
Diachronically, n-stems can, in your analysis, be derived from
thematic stems by the addition of *-n. The 'law' that says suffixes
are of the form -VC, is just a codified observation and be modified
according to new observations.
(Also, the assumption of a definitivizing n-suffix makes PIE more like
Danish, which is nice.)


Torsten