Re: *y-n,W- "subordinate"?

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 61737
Date: 2008-11-19

On 2008-11-19 20:01, tgpedersen wrote:

> > The Germanic 'young' word is further extended with the suffix
> > *-k^ó- (cf. Skt. yuvas'á-, Lat. iuvencus):
>
> Which is different from *-ko, right?

Yes, but with a similar function. PIE had both *-ko- and (rarer) *-k^o-.

> You could of course stick to your guns and declare the situation
> satisfactorily explained; personally I think a language which has both
> *eu-t- "young" and *h2ju- "young" needs a checkup.

As I have already explained, *h2(o/e)ju- (the other full grade *h2jew-
is secondary) doesn't mean 'young' by itself. It is not even an
adjective but an acrostatic neuter noun meaning things like 'vitality',
'youthful vigour' and 'longevity'. It's the source of a vast and
well-investigated word-family, several of whose members occur in
Germanic (e.g. *aiwi 'ever, eternally' < *h2aiw-i, with further
derivatives). *h2jú-h3on- means '(a man) endowed with youthful vigour'
--> 'young, a youth', but it's a derived meaning. I don't know what to
make of Gmc. *euþa-, but it doesn't even resemble, let alone match, any
of the Germanic cognates of <young>.

Piotr