[tied] Re: PIE *le:p/*la:b

> What we find in *slabU 'weak', however, is not a Slavic prefix but
> (posssibly) the so-called "mobile *s", as in PIE *teg-/*steg-

'cover'.

> Its origin is not quite clear, but at any rate the phenomenon goes

back

> to PIE and whatever its original function (possibly expressing
> intensiveness), it had no meaning in Proto-Slavic -- it was just a
> linguistic fossil by that time. If *slabU is related to Germanic

*sle:p-

> 'sleep' and Lat. la:bor 'slip, fall down' (most etymological
> dictionaries suggest this connection; in Latin *sl- > l-), one

should

> probably reconstruct it as *sloh1bo-, although such a root shape is
> somewhat problematic because of the rarity of PIE *b. We perhaps

have

> the same root without the mobile *s in Eng. lap 'a piece that hangs
> down' < OE lappa < *lapn- < *l&1b-n- (?). It's also possible that

we're

> dealing with an old cluster of phonaesthetically rather than
> etymologically connected expressive roots.
>
> Piotr

************
To this root *sleb- 'to be weak, sleep' probably belongs Alb. verb
<fle> 'to sleep' < *slo:- , besides much complex adjective <i
plogshtë> 'indolent, lazy, apathetic' < *p-sle:-g-so-.
But, what about other prefixed Slavic form <kolebati> 'to waver, to
hesitate' (if we accept reconstructed root as *sloh1bo-) and Alb.
verb <lebetit> 'to strike terror into; to throw into panic, to
overawe', <lebeti> 'dread, panic, terror', both wit very firm /b/?

Konushevci