Re: [tied] fs^u-, pasú-

tgpedersen wrote:

>
> The *peku- "cattle, wealth" root survives in Sanskrit as <pas´ú->,
> but in Avestan only in compounds in the zero grade form <fs^u->,
> where /p/ > /f/ before /s/. This is regular, I believe. Now, the
> question is this: if *peku- had survived in Avestan (presumably as
> *pasú-), and assuming that it had kept the various Ablaut grades
> alive in its paradigm, including zero grade (eg. in the genitive),
> would it then have had been inflected **pasú, **fs^u-, etc? making it
> look almost suppletive?
>
> Torsten
>

According to Mayrhofer, the word survives in Avestan as pasu-. The
zero-grade from exists in compounds as f^su-. If there was originally
ablaut in the nominal declension, then it was levelled out very early, I
would assume for the reason that you mentioned - the different grades
would have seem like completely different words.

In Vedic, as well as pa'su-, you can find the zero-grade form in
compounds such as ks.umant-. < *p'sumant, which is the same as Avestan
f^su:mant, and also in a compound virap'sa-, which means "overflowing",
but would have originally meant "having men and animals. Note the short
/i/, apparently by analogy to the preverb vi-. See Mayrhofer for all the
details.


Daniel