--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "P&G" <petegray@...> wrote:
> I don't doubt your perception. But I do doubt that this can be
taken back
> to PIE.
I can only claim it for PIE. It may be wrong though, but I think
there is too much to be ascribed to chance. You *should* doubt my
perception, I do.
> I also need to ask, in what languages did the sk-present become the
> "unmarked present"?
I meant "the unmarked present of a given verb". That definitely
happened sometimes. Thus, Goth. fraihnan : Lat. precor looks like a
perfect nasal-present-and-root-aorist couple, which has fallen out
of use (by the functional change of the aor.sbj. *prek^-e- to a
present indicative), whereupon the sk^/s-arrangement took over (with
loss of its special inchoative shade). The same may be said about
*gWn-ne-H3-/*gWneH3- 'know' which has replaced by *gWnH3-sk^e-ti/
*gWne:H-s-t.
Jens