On Mon, 03 Feb 2003 09:13:09 -0000, "tgpedersen
<
tgpedersen@...>" <
tgpedersen@...> wrote:
>That m-prefix ("my heart"?) would be a one-off thing, true. But there
>is a n-infix. And of course I might argue that there once was a nasal
>prefix, and that it disappeared, leaving no traces but t > dH etc.
The Kartvelian m- prefix (as in m-k.erd-) is not connected to the 1st
person prefix (which is w-, anyway).
Its uses in Kartvelian (m- participal prefix, m-..-e: verbal noun,
agent noun circumfix [Klimov gives the following examples from Svan:
m&-dz^Gir "wet", m&-k.ar "open", m&-txeli "seeker", m&-k.et "friend,
lover"; m&-c^.m-e "mower", m&-gc^-e "one who holds", m&-tr-e
"drinker"] are in function [and form] very close to the Arabic mas.dar
and generally to the Semitic participles, verbal nouns, agent nouns,
instrument nouns etc. with prefix mi-/ma-/mu-. (Interestingly, as I
was checking the spelling of the word mas.dar "verbal noun", I found
that it is itself the mas.dar of a root s.-d-r meaning "chest,
breast", just like Kartvelian m-k.erd-).
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...