Re: IE prefix "*s"

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Abdullah Konushevci"
<a_konushevci@...> wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Piotr Gasiorowski"
> <piotr.gasiorowski@...> wrote:
> > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Abdullah Konushevci"
> > <a_konushevci@...> wrote:
> >
> > > Outcome of PIE /*s/ > Alb. /s/ we have attested in *snuso:s >
> > > nuse 'bride', in *super > sipër 'over' (cf. hip 'to climb up,

to

> go
> > > up' from *up-er-) some of basic words of the Albanian inherited
> > > dictionary.
> >
> > I'm not sure where <sipër> comes from, but since it fails to match
> > *super- on two counts I suspect that the similarity between the

two

> is
> > accidental. <nuse> can't be derived via regular sound changes from
> > *snusah2 or *snusos (PIE "*snuso:s" doesn't exist), and it most
> likely
> > reflects pre-Alb. *(s)nu(p)tja: < *snubH-t-jah2, related not only

to

> > Lat. nuptia 'wedding' but more importantly to Gk. numpHe: 'bride,
> > marriageable girl', which also tended to replace <nuos> (<

*snusos).

> > The verb *sneubH- 'marry' may be ultimately related to *snusos via
> > hypothetical unextended *sneu-, buth that's a different story.
> >
> > Piotr
> ************
> Instead of reply: Calvert Watkins, "An Example of Reconstruction"

in "Indo-European and Indo-europeans"

> A number of Indo-European languages show a similar word for the
> kinship term "daughter-in-law": Sanskrit snu , Old English snoru,
> Old Church Slavonic sn kha (Russian snokhá), Latin nurus, Greek

nuós,

> and Armenian nu. All of these forms, called cognates, provide
> evidence for the phonetic shape of the prehistoric Indo-European

word

> for "daughter-in-law" that is their common ancestor. Sanskrit,
> Germanic, and Slavic agree in showing an Indo-European word that
> began with sn-. We know that an Indo-European s was lost before n

in

> other words in Latin, Greek, and Armenian, so we can confidently
> assume that Latin nurus, Greek nuós, and Armenian nu also go back

to

> an Indo-European *sn-. (Compare Latin nix [stem niv-], "snow," with
> English SNOW, which preserves the s.) This principle is spoken of

as

> the regularity of sound correspondences; it is basic to the

sciences

> of etymology and comparative linguistics. 16
> Sanskrit, Latin, Greek, and Armenian agree in showing the first

vowel

> as -u-. We know from other examples that Slavic regularly
> corresponds to Sanskrit u and that in this position Germanic o (of
> Old English snoru) has been changed from an earlier u. It is thus
> justifiable to reconstruct an Indo-European word beginning *snu-.

17

> For the consonant originally following *snu-, closer analysis is
> required. The key is furnished first by the Sanskrit form, for we
> know there is a rule in Sanskrit that s always changes to (a sh-

like

> sound) after the vowel u. Therefore a Sanskrit snu - must go back

to

> an earlier *snus-. In the same position, after u, an old -s-

changes

> to kh (like the ch in Scottish loch or German ach) in Slavic; hence
> the Slavic word, too, reflects *snus-. In Latin always, and in
> Germanic under certain conditions, an old -s- between vowels

changed

> to -r-. For this reason Latin nurus and Old English snoru may go

back

> to older *snus- (followed by a vowel) as well. In Greek and

Armenian,

> on the other hand, an old -s- between vowels disappeared entirely,

as

> we know from numerous instances. Greek nuós and Armenian nu (stem

nuo-

> ) thus regularly presuppose the same earlier form, *snus- (followed
> by a vowel). All the comparative evidence agrees, then, on the Indo-
> European root form *snus-. 18
> For the ending, the final vowels of Sanskrit snu , Old English
> snoru, and Slavic sn kha all presuppose earlier - (*snus- ), which
> is the ordinary feminine ending of these languages. On the other
> hand, Latin nurus, Greek nuós, and Armenian nu (stem nuo-) all
> regularly presuppose the earlier ending *-os (*snus-os). We have an
> apparent impasse; but the way out is given by the gender of the

forms

> in Greek and Latin. They are feminine, even though most nouns in
> Latin -us and Greek -os are masculine. 19
> Feminine nouns in Latin -us and Greek -os, since they are an

abnormal

> type, cannot have been created afresh; they must have been

inherited.

> This suggests that the original Indo-European form was *snusos, of
> feminine gender. On the other hand, the commonplace freely formed
> ending for feminine nouns was *- . It is reasonable to suggest that
> the three languages Sanskrit, Germanic, and Slavic replaced the
> peculiar feminine ending *-os (because that ending was normally
> masculine) with the normal feminine ending *- , and thus that the
> oldest form of the word was *snusos (feminine).20
> One point remains to be ascertained: the accent. Of those four
> language groups that reflect the Indo-European accent—Sanskrit,
> Greek, (Balto-)Slavic, and Germanic—the first three agree in

showing

> a form accented on the last syllable: snu , nuós, snokhá. The
> Germanic form is equally precise, however, since the rule is that
> old -s- went to -r- (Old English snoru) only if the accented

syllable

> came after the -s-.21
> On this basis we may add the finishing touch to our reconstruction:
> the full form of the word for "daughter-in-law" in Indo-European is
> *snusós.22
>
> Also:*pos > pas 'after, behind'
>
> Konushevci