Re: [tied] Green

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 18300
Date: 2003-01-29

----- Original Message -----
From: "Patrick C. Ryan" <proto-language@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2003 8:59 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Green



> While addressing the question of whether *any* language has a form related to *werdh- meaning 'green', I hastily referred to viridis which, as both you and Piotr point out, is much more plausibly related to *weis-.

> Any ideas on the origin of the final -i-?

Perhaps the influence of <viri:lis> (where the /-i-/ is expected). One of the meanings of <viridis> was 'vigorous', so there was an area of semantic overlap between the two. The gen.pl. of <viridis> is slightly unusual -- <viridum>, not *<viridium>. It may have kept the archaic ending of the first declension, surviving from the time when the form of the adjective was still the expected *wiridos rather than *wiridis.

Piotr

Piotr