On Fri, 19 Dec 2003 21:25:16 +0100, Piotr Gasiorowski
<
piotr.gasiorowski@...> wrote:
>The *s of *(s)upo- and *(s)uper- is
>believed to be a case of "*s mobile". However, if we simply count the
>votes, it turns out that Lat. sup- gets no real support (or shall I say
>upport?) from elsewhere and may represent an Italic idiosyncrasy, while
>*s-less forms occur rather widely.
The s- of super- is I think analogical after <sub> "under". But where did
that s- come from? EIEC (under "UP") mentions a *s-h4upó "underneath" Lat.
sub "under", animalia suppa "animals (on all fours)" [..], Arm hup "near",
ToB spe "near", Hitt. suppala- "animal". The only reference given is GI
(Gamkrelidze & Ivanov) p. 104.
I prefer Pokorny's explanation *<ex-upo> > <sub>. "Out from under", "out
from behind" et sim. are concepts that merit their own preposition in a
number of languages (e.g. Polish <spod> and my favourite, <zza>).
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...