On Wed, 31 Oct 2001 23:10:16, "Glen Gordon" <
glengordon01@...>
wrote:
>Okay, so we have this root *ek^wo- (I've taken out the initial
>glottal stop *? since question marks are just so ugly). The
>word is supposed to be related to *o:k^u-. We know that if
>this is the case, the word has been thematized with an additional
>*-o- (and this is completely normal for IE to do). Thus, we
>should obtain **o:k^wo-... but then, this is not the expected
>result, is it. So much for that idea.
Not so o:k^ú... There might be all kinds of other things going on,
such as vrddhi. Now I'm not aware of any evidence that vrddhi is
someting to be expected with u-stem derived adjectives, but if Piotr
is right, and *ek^u- (later *ek^w-os) is basic and *o:k^ú- derived,
then vrddhi is one of the possible derivation mechanisms that PIE had
to its disposal.
I'm wondering though, whether the traditional explanation, that links
*o:k^ú- "fast" with *h2ak^-(u-)/*h2ok^-(u-) "sharp" is not to be
preferred. Pokorny's "schnell (scharf in der Bewegung)" is not some
semantical handwave, but is backed up by Latin <accipiter> (*aku-peter
"sharp-flying") and Slavic <jastre(~)bU> (*o:k^r- "fast"), both
meaning "hawk, falcon". If so, then the laryngeal in *o:k^ú- is *h2,
and any link with *h1ek^wos is off.