From: Rob
Message: 32674
Date: 2004-05-17
--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "elmeras2000" <jer@...> wrote:
> The idea is this:
>
> The stem of the IE verb reflects an agent noun: Ved. hánmi 'I kill'
> contains the same stem as vrtra-hán- 'killer of Vrtra', so *gWhen-
> m+i is properly "a killer (am) I".
Okay, so where were the actual verbs in Pre-PIE? Or is it supposed
that there was no clear line between verbs and nouns?
> With some root structures the agent noun of this short type has an
> extension in *-t-, as Ved. soma-kr-t- 'make of soma'. The 3sg form
> of the aorist ákar from *kWer-t will then have meant "a maker (was
> he)". The passive participle in *-to- must be an adjectival
> derivative from this: *kWr-t-ó- "belonging to a maker, what a maker
> has, what a maker has made, made".
>
> Other roots (or root structures?) form the agent noun as an n-stem.
> Thus Avest. spasan-, OHG spehho 'scout', OLat. as-se:do:, -
> o:nis 'assessor', OHG man-ezzo 'cannibal'. Some of these form ppp
in
> *-no-, Ved. ptc. sanná-, sbst. ánna-m 'food'.
So, then, what did the *-ó element originally mean?
> The joint testimony of this leads to the conclusion that -t- and -
(e)
> n- are not only allomorphs, but originally phonetic variants.
> Martinet toyed with a pre-nasalized [Nd] on many occasions, and it
> is hard to see where else the solution to the riddle may lie. We
> need a special element anyway if final *-t goes to *-s in the 2sg
> marker (and the s-stems, I'd say, and of course in the few
remaining
> s/t-stems).
Perhaps not. Assuming that 3rd *-t descended from the demonstrative
stem *to-, then the only other thing that can be supposed is that the
2sg *-t became *-s before the demonstrative *to- came to be used to
mark the 3rd person.
- Rob