>> I think the PIE perfect relates to the present of the -hi verbs,
>> not the past.
> Is there any basis for this verdict? On what basis did you make up your
> mind?
Purely derivative, I'm afraid! I merely repeat what greater scholars say.
E.g. Lehmann: "These [perfect] endings correspond to those of the -hi
conjugation in Hittite."
Though I freely confess scholarly opinion varies to an extreme on this
point, e.g. Szemerényi:
"The -hi conjugation is thus not inherited but a Hittite innovation, which
is not shared even with other Anatolian languages."
>Do Sanskrit -a, Gk. -a resemble
> Hitt. prs. -hi (older -he) more than they do Luvian prt. -ha? Do
> Skt. -tha, Gk. -tha resemble Hitt. prs. -ti (older -te) better than
> they do Hitt. prt. -ta?
This is a little disingenuous, Jens. We cannot simply compare the existing
forms. Rather we must compare what we can safely reconstruct, namely the
singular endings:
*-ha< h2e, *-tha < -th2e, * -e
and we must also allow that Hittite has remodelled the -hi conjugation on
the basis of the -mi conjugation. Hence we have:
Hittite -hi < older -he ~ reconstructed *-he
HIttite -t- < older -te ~ reconstructed *-the
Hittite -i < older -e ~ reconstructed *-e
That's convincing enough for me!
Peter