Piotr:
>How would you explain the complementary distribution of s- and
> >l-genitives? The ending <-al> occurs after -s, -th and with feminine
> >nouns in <-i>; <-(V)s> is found elsewhere:
Yes, I'm aware. This is why I mentioned that it's probably an IndoTyr.
thing, if not an Etruscan thing. You see, the *l- and *s- genitives are
obviously in no way connected with each other phonetically, although they
may be given a complementary distribution later on. There is no way to
explain the two genitives as deriving from a common source, period. They
must have had a slightly different meaning in earlier times for both to have
survived as they do in Etruscan. I see no other origin for these genitives.
So what differences might they have had? I model the differences on Finnish
declension where we find internal and external nuances in various case
endings (coincidentally using *-s- for internal and *-l- for external
relationships in combination with the Uralic endings *-ta and *-na). I see
another "complementary distribution" phenomenon happening with Hittite
/-weni/ and /-meni/ which must have also been slightly different in meaning
originally.
>Aren't the occasional forms with -n connected with denominal >possessive
>adjectives like aisna 'belonging to a god', laukhumna >'royal', tuthin(a)
>'public' (= 'people's'), Rasna 'Etruscan' (related >to North-Aegean
>-eno-?)?
That book mentions a genitive in /-n/, not /-na/, and gives /puian/, not
*/puiana/. However I suppose one could argue that this is just those whacky
Etruscans with their vowel-economy again. /Ras'na/ as an example means
little because we are left to figure out what *Ras'- means. Perhaps /-na/
might be part of this. They do have overlapping meanings at the very least.
I'll think about this.
Oh, I just realised something. If IndoTyr *-an truely functioned as the
partitive, there would have been an opposition between *-an (indefinite
accusative & partitive, as in Finnish) and *-m (definite accusative) which
lends even more credence to a later confusion in IE (*-�m/*-m). I should
have realised before. I'm so stupid.
- gLeN
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