On Thu, 14 Dec 2000 08:27:34 , "Glen Gordon"
<
glengordon01@...> wrote:
>Taking Burrows initial and valid explaination of avoidance of final vocalic
>-r, the -k is obviously just a product of that purely Sanskrit rule, just as
>with /yakrt/ < *yakr < *yekWr. Case closed.
Well, what's the rule? Do we add -t as in <yákr.t> "liver", <s'ákr.t>
"excrement", or do we add -k as in <ásr.k> "blood", or don't we add
anything but insert a vowel, as in <ahar> "day", <u:dhar> "udder", or
do we replace -r with -i as in <áks.i> "eye", <ásthi> "bone", <dadhi>
"curds" or <sakthi> "thigh"?
Speaking of "eye", another curious thing Eric P. Hamp says: his
*3wekw- "eye" has "*-tsH/l- [in] Indo-Iranian, Greek, Slavic (>
*s-stem), Italic (-l-)". Thinking some more about this, I wonder if
we don't have here another case of -l/-n- in disguise. The data:
Ved. <aks.i>, <aks.n.ás> (in composites also <aks.i->, in Caland
fashion), du. <aks.i:> (Av. <as^i>, maybe < *<axs^i> due to <us^i>
"ears")
Arm. <akn>, <akan>, pl. (< du.) <ac^`k`>
Grk. <omma>, <ommatos> or <ophthalmós> (dial. <óktallos>,
<optíl(l)os>), du. <osse> (<otte>).
Lat. <oculus>
Gmc. *<augan-> (we would expect *awan- or *agwan-, maybe influence of
*auso: "ear").
Lith. <akìs>, du. <akì>
Slav. <oko>, <oc^ese>, du. (> pl.) <oc^i> [n-stem <okno> "window"].
Toch. A. <ak>. du. <as'äm.>, B. <ek>, du. <es'ane>
We'll leave Hitt. <sakuwa-> and Luw. <tawi-> aside for now.
The dual almost unanimously points to *okw-i-h1 (Ved. aks.i: could be
analogical for expected *aci:). The singular is more difficult: we
appear to have root nouns in Lithuanian <akìs> and Toch. <ak>/<ek>; we
have *-(e)n- in Arm. <akn>, Grk. <omma> (< *okw-men, possibly for
*okw-en-), Germ. *<augan>, [Slav. <okno>]. We have *-(e)l- in Latin
oculus. We have *-es- in Slavic <oc^es->. We have *-sn- (or is it
*-tn-?) in Vedic <aks.n-> and *-tH-l-(m)- in Greek <opthalmos>.
It's hard to say what to make of this. Are we dealing with one or
more singulative suffixes? If so, what is it (are they)? Any ideas?
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...