Alexandru_mg3:
>8) The adjective formant **s(e)-', '**strong (from Proto-Language
>SA)', could be prefixed to any of the above described forms, and
>signified intensivity; this is the Indo-European s-mobile.
That's the worst link to go by. The real answer is that the function
of the *s-mobile, if there was one, is unknown. So there are a lot
of theories that need to be evaluated with care.
Personally, although this is just one of many theories, I think that it
never had a function in IE and is nothing more than fossilized
remnants of the causitive prefix used in Semitic verbs. In other
words, Semitic loans would have been borrowed into pre-IE with
these *s- prefixes attached. Occasionally one would find pairs of
loans with and without this un-IE prefix, giving rise to the "s-mobile"
fiasco. So eventually, alll verbs starting with *sC- (C = any consonant),
whether originally IE loans or not, came to be treated the same with
an optional prefix. This is just a suggestion though.
= gLeN
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