On Fri, 25 Apr 2003, Sergejus Tarasovas wrote:
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Jens Elmegaard Rasmussen <jer@...>
> wrote:
> > However, I wonder if cases of an apparently meaningless suffix
> > *-wo- and nasal presents in apparently suffixed *-new-/*-nu-
> > could reflect roots that were actually longer but lost some
> > material in so many forms that they were registered in too
> > short a form.
>
> Is it a beginning of a new thread? If not, I must admit you won: I
> can't see how this is related to the PIE phonotactic features I was
> wondering about.
Oh no? I meant you may be on to something in terms of root structure
adjustments in prestages of PIE. Perhaps unpleasant root structures were
brought into line with overall rules by a variety of strategies depending
on the specific phonotactic setting, but left alone where they presented
no difficulties. And, just as with roots in -Hy- which have largely caused
misinterpretation of the -y- as a suffixed element, thus some other
structures could perhaps also contain high-sonantic elements that have
been put down as suffixes in our handbooks. A case in point may be Skt.
cinoïti 'pile up' with PPP citaï- (Lith. kitas 'other' from *'added'?)
which it would be nice to combine with Gk. poieïo: 'I make, compose' under
a root form *kWeyw-; that would be no problem for *kWi-ne-w-ti, nor for
*kWoyw-eyo:, but it would demand the assumption that the anteconsonantal
zero grade changed from *kWyw-to- into *kWi-to-, or that, at an earlier
time, the anteconsonantal root form was reduced from *kWeyw- to *kWey-. I
wouldn't know how to test such a possibility except by waiting for
examples to show up.
Jens