On Mon, 28 Feb 2005 08:45:24 +0000, P&G
<G&
P@...> wrote:
>
>>> Hittite -hi < older -he ~ reconstructed *-he
>> > HIttite -t- < older -te ~ reconstructed *-the
>> > Hittite -i < older -e ~ reconstructed *-e
>
>>2sg. *-te and 3sg. *-e are not attested,
>
>According to Calvert Watkins, the 3sg is found in Old Hittite. I
>personally cannot attest it one way or the other.
Right, I was relying on memory.
The spelling -h(h)e is rather frequent in Old Hittite, but
-(h)hi is also seen, and becomes the only form used in later
Hittite. Second person *-t(t)e is unattested (there is one
Neo-Hittite spelling -tte (wa-ar-ri-is^-s^a-at-te, where
<te> must probably be read as /ti/: the problem is that some
of the Ce-signs, and most of the eC-signs could also be read
as Ci, iC). The third person ending -e is rare (waras^s^e
"plucks", mazze "?") even in Old Hittite, the regular form
being -i.
Phonetically, unstressed *-ei and *-ai (*-oi) would have
merged to -e almost eveywhere, except after a velar
consonant (where *oi > e and *ei > i). Since 3sg. -e is not
attested after a velar, it is more parsimonial to
reconstruct *-ei.
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...