Re: [tied] Re: wre:g^, wro:g^ 'break'

From: P&G
Message: 24053
Date: 2003-06-30

>How rare is e-grade with -neu/nu? The Greek text book example
>deĆ­knu:mi 'show' has e-grade.

Strictly speaking, it should be zero grade, and mostly is, but Greek uses it
also on a few full grade stems. The reason for this is in the origin of
the -neu/nu suffix. It begins life as a nasal infix in roots ending in -w,
eg *k'lw
k'l-ne-w in alternation with k'l-n-w
These appear as k'l-neu / k'l-nu (Skt s'rno-ti and s'rnumas).

Greek appears to treat this ending -neu/-nu as a suffix, and puts it on both
zero grade and full grade forms. Examples:
(Spot the zero grades): stor-nu-mi phrag-nu-mi ol-lumi om-numi
apoktin-numi tanumai (< *tn-nu, ~ teinw < *ten-io)
(full grades): zeug-numi deik-numi oreg-numi

There are also some long vowel forms, which would need close examination
before we could judge what's going on.

Peter