From: Kim Bastin
Message: 33892
Date: 2004-08-27
>Is there any explanation of Latin _hu:ma:nus_, in particular its long
>
>Archaic Latin hemo:, as well as ne:mo: < *ne hemo: show the original
>vocalism in Latin (/e/ rather than /o/). But Latin /eN/ may go back to a
>syllabic nasal, not necessarily to an IE e-grade. The most likely protoform
>for all the various cognates of <homo:> (including OE guman- and Lith.
>z^mon-) is *g^Hm.(-h)on-. If the second element is the Hoffmann suffix
>*-h(3?)on-, it's genetically different from the *-on- of *ték^þ-on-, which
>is quite probably a reduced variant of the participial suffix *-(o)nt-. For
>one thing, *g^Hm.-(h)on- is derived from a noun ('earth'), but *ték^þ-on-
>from a verb ('to fashion')!