[tied] Re: Renfrew's theory renamed as Vasco-Caucasian

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...> wrote:

>
> On 2007-09-30 10:32, tgpedersen wrote:
>
> >> How many different conjugations and roots have been listed
> >> in Old English for the most basic verb : to be.
> >
> > Three roots: *es-, *bhu:- and *wes-
>
> Four, actually. The fourth one is *h1er-, as in WSax. 2sg. eart
> (Merc. earþ, Nbr. arþ, 3pl. aru, Mod.Eng. are, art).

Hm. I always thought that was a Verner variant of *es-. Could it be a
loan from ON (em, ert, er, erum, eruþ, eru), which in turn could be
back-formed from 3sg. er?
Vimmer: Oldnordisk Formlære
"I det ældste sprog bruges s for r i de former, der begynder med ver-
[subjunctive], samt i nut.[present] ert, er og fort.[pret.] var, vart."
which I read to mean that those forms were est, es and vas, vast.
Older Danish still had 'du est'.

What's with the pres. 2sg. -t/-þ ?


Torsten