Re: [tied] Narten presents, *mad- and such

----- Original Message -----
From: "Glen Gordon" <glengordon01@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, April 08, 2002 9:24 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Narten presents, *mad- and such



> Well, maybe I should just ask: "How does one conjugate an
a-grade
> verb across the whole aspectual spectrum of durative,
aorist and
> stative?"

I wish I knew :)

OK, there's no such thing as an a-grade verb; in other
words, *a plays no grammatical functions. As far as I can
see, verb roots can contain *a if there's a colouring
laryngeal next to it, as in *h2ag^- or if they are secondary
formations, derived from nouns containing *a. The
(branch-specific?) colouring effect of *k [q] should be
considered as well, e.g. *kap- (for *kep-). They should be
conjugated like other verbs, except that underlying *e's are
*a-coloured.

> >The cognacy of <sa:kki> to Lat. sa:gio:, saga:x, Gk.
he:geomai,
> >Celt. *sag- and Gmc. *so:k-j-an- is doubtful. If you ask
my opinion, I'd
> >prefer to connect it with Lat. scio: 'know'.

> A) Why is it "doubtful"?
> B) What advantages does a connection with /scio:/ have?

Hittite double intervocalic <-kk-> should probably be read
as (synchronic and etymological) [-k-], and the Hittite
paradigm suggests (strong) *sok-/(weak) *sek- (the latter
replaced in some forms with a secondary weak grade *s&k-,
Hiit. sakk-). The verb means 'know' in Hittite (like
<scio:>), whereas the focal meaning of *sa:g- seems to have
been something like 'track down, follow, scent'.

Piotr