Re: [tied] Demonstratives

On Wed, 07 Apr 2004 12:52:29 -0700 (PDT),
enlil@... wrote:

>>The same rule (deletion of *i before *á-) also explains the
>>feminine forms:
>
>Ugh. Let's end the madness now. As far as I see, the feminine
>was simply *-ah2, a "thematized" variant of inanimate *-h2,
>used in collectives. So the feminine ending was at one time
>merely to convey a human collective.

The feminine has nothing to do with the collective. Not
even in the alleged parallel case of Semitic, where we saw
at -at- is not a collective suffix at all, but rather the
opposite, a singulative.

>The ending *-ih2 is a composite of *-i- and feminine.

What *-i-? Where does it come from? What does it mean?
What's it doing in the oblique of the a:-stems?


=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...