> As for the status of the *-i, it is of importance that the primary
> marker is used in both positive and negative statements of the
> present, and it is not used in any statements of the past, be they
> positive or negative. This is a point in which all IE languages that
> can show the difference concur.
Yes, I yield. It was a major goofup I must recover from. And
my crabby, stubborn, stressed-out self couldn't process being
wrong. So I resisted... but resistence is futile. After going
on a mini-vacation out of the city, I feel refreshed and less
bitter towards humanity than I normally am :) Mea culpa.
Still, it has no bearing on the analysis of *-i as deriving from a
demonstrative that was originally meant to put focus on the time
of the action, regardless of tense. I guess I was deceived partly
because of how I associate this ending with English "over here" in
a slangy, New York style accent. For example, "I'm dyin' over here".
Again, like *-i, it puts focus on the action and can only
normally be used in the present. A phrase *"I was dyin' over here"
sounds odd. However, I coincidentally never see it in the negative
afaik. I never hear a phrase like *"I _AIN'T_ dyin' over here".
Regardless of the negative-present issue, I think English "over
here" is a good analogy to the ending in IE. I'll get to the
whole syncope issue later. I've had a few days to think about
how to explain it, and hopefully prove it as best as possible,
step-by-step.
= gLeN