Re: [tied] Risoe fo the Feminine (was: -osyo 3)

>
> > Of course, the feminine gender's being recent does not mean it was
> > not present in Proto-Indo-Hittite, but does make it plausible as

an

> > innovation of the IE branch.
>
> No, it doesn't mean necessarily that, true, but the complete absence
> of the feminine really really really makes it likely :) Otherwise we
> have to wonder why it is that the feminine gender was eradicated
> so efficiently. Did Hittites not like women? Did they import...

Here's my homegrown teory why -a came to mean feminine:

1)
Krahe's Old European is full of /a/'s. In particular, most of his
placenames end in -a.

2)
According to a myth I forgot where I heard, Apollo in the beginning
travelled the length and breadth of Greece, having sex with the
eponymous godesses of each town he encountered.

from which one might possibly learn about the attitude of the IE
invaders towards the aboriginal Europeans: screw'em!

Torsten