[tied] Re: Eggs from birds and swift horses

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer <mcv@...> wrote:

> On Mon, 16 Feb 2004 20:23:07 +0000, P&G <petegray@...> wrote:
>
> >>Latin has
> >> traces [of the augment] like /e:st/ of course, but it evidently
> >> wasn't such a vital prefix in IE.
> >
> >Happy to concede it wasn't a vital prefix, if you're conceding it

was a

> >prefix.
> >But enough of that trail - Latin /e:st/ interests me. Are you

suggesting

> >there was a Latin past form /e:st/ meaning "was"? You may well be

right,

> >but it's new to me. The only /e:st/ I know is the present tense

of the verb

> >esse = "to eat" (< *ed-t).
>
> As far as I know, the only otherwise augment-less language that has

e:s- in

> a past tense of "to be" is Slavic, in the imperfect:
>
> be^(a)xU, be^(as^e), be^(as^e)
> be^(a)xomU, be^ste/be^as^ete, be^s^eN/be^axoN
> be^(a)xove^, be^sta/be^as^eta, be^ste/be^as^ete
>
> The idea is that the paradigm derives from *e^s(^)- < *e:s-, with b-

added

> later (as in in German pres. bin < *im < *esmi or Old Irish subj.

beo < *eo

> < *eso:).
>
>
> =======================
> Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
> mcv@...

I never heard of a Latin /e:st/ "it was". It simply doesn't exist,
until somebody will provide some very convincing evidence.
The form /e:st/ "he / she eats" seems to be a contraction of a more
regular /edit/, and I'm rather doubtful about vowel length, which was
not marked in close syllables (and so difficult to reconstruct).
As an example of vowel length in such a context we could
quote /Ma:rs/, the source of the month name /ma:rtius/ >
Welsh /mawrth/. It comes from /Ma:wort-/. But this /e:st/ has
something strange in its length.

Regards

Marco