From: richardwordingham
Message: 13982
Date: 2002-07-11
--- In cybalist@..., "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
<Snip>
> If some PIE verbal or nominal root contains the ablaut vowel
> [e/o/nothing], and that
>
> PIE -peH-/-poH-/-pH- -> -pe:-/-po:-/-b'-
> (applicable also to other stops of course)
>
> does that mean that (verbal or nominal) root would end up as a
> pradigm with a "mixed" root (-p-t-/-p-d-) which might be levelled
> either way?
I believe that in this hypothetical context the fuller form would be
**peh3t. The most voiced trajectory for the zero grade would have
been ph3t > bh3t > bt > pt. However, the reduced grade of *pod-
'foot' (no laryngeal!) was pd > bd, with bd- > ped- initially.
Piotr has posted, in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/2630, examples of
Sanskrit compounds with a non-initial element 'bd' for foot.
I don't know of any levelling arising from such construction, but I
wouldn't be surprised to see the arguments (e.g.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/4674) over Greek
ogdoos 'eighth' (compared with okto: 'eight') resurface.
Can we still write xW for h3 and claim that 'x' is a substitute for
gamma as well as chi?
Richard.
** indicates a reconstruction I don't believe.