Re: [tied] Re: IE prefix "*s"

----- Original Message -----
From: "Glen Gordon" <glengordon01@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, December 12, 2003 6:59 AM
Subject: RE: [tied] Re: IE prefix "*s"



> 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.

To support this connection, you should demonstrate that there are some
Semitic loans among the roots showing the *s mobile (preferably a
significant percentage of them). I gather you assume that the original
causative value of the initial *s- was not recognised by the Indo-Europeans,
which immunises your suggestion against semantic verification. Here's a
working list (far from exhaustive but I think representative) of some of the
best-attested *s-mobile variants:

*(s)ker- (+ various extensions) 'cut, divide'
*(s)keuh- 'cover, hide, wrap'
*(s)lei- (+ various extensions) 'stick' (+ miscellaneous slimy and slippery
things)
*(s)mer- 'remember'
*(s)neh1- 'spin, twist' (+ various 'thread and needle' terms and words for
slithering and sidewinding things)
*(s)neh2- 'swim, float, sail'
*(s)pek^- 'see'
*(s)pen- 'spin, stretch'
*(s)poih-(m)n-ah2 'foam'
*(s)pjeuh- 'spit, spew'
*(s)teg- 'cover, thatch'
*(s)teu- 'strike'
*(s)up-(ero-) in adpreps
*(s)wer- 'say, declare'

If there's anything noteworthy about these words, it's the possibly
expressive value of *s- in some of them (/sl-/, /sn-/, /st-/ and arguably
/sp-/ function as "phonaesthemes" even in Modern English). I wouldn't
exclude the possibility that *s mobile did have a function in (pre-)PIE,
e.g. as a prefixoid (a fossilised adverb?) lending perfective, inchoative or
intensive force to verb roots (comparable to Gmc. *ga- or Slavic *sU(n)- [no
etymological connection claimed]). Just a suggestion, of course.

Piotr