Re: [TIED] Sister

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 2669
Date: 2000-06-18

 
----- Original Message -----
From: Marc Verhaegen
To: cybalist@egroups.com
Sent: Sunday, June 18, 2000 11:24 PM
Subject: Re: [TIED] Sister

 
Marc wrote: Sorry for my (stupid) question about the -ter in sister? But is the -ter/-ther in father, brother, mother and daughter the same IYO?
 
Only answers can be stupid. And truth to tell, I've got no really wise answer to offer about the *-ter ending. It certainly recurs in family terms: the words for father, mother, brother, daughter, and brother's wife (*jenxte:r) contain it, but the elements preceding it are notoriously uninterpretable (well, *pa, *ma may be lexicalised nursery terms for dad and mom, but what about the rest?). Moreover, in ALL these words *-ter is preceded by *x (=h2). Combinatorial analysis suggests that it's the constant *-xter rather than *-ter that represents the real 'family suffix'. It looks like a good topic to discuss next.
 
Piotr