[tied] Re: Singulative

From: tgpedersen
Message: 37556
Date: 2005-05-04

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "P&G" <G&P@...> wrote:
> >> I read in Gam & Iv that Gk. 'gunaikos' "woman" has been
proposed to
> > be
> >> a collective with a singulative -k- suffix.
>
> Then why is the -k- absent from the nominative, of all places?
Why gune:
> and not gunaix?

So, I found the quote:
G & I p 246 note 17.
"According to Knobloch (1955:213, 1958:240), there is evidence for a
former collective meaning of Greek guné: < *gW(e)na: in
the 'singulative' formations such as gunaikós (with a suffix *-k- of
the same type as in Avent. pasuka- "domestic animal", cf. pasu-
"livestock")."

I need a Greek course. On the other hand, my original idea that the
-k- suffix of Nordwestblock words was singulative seems to hold.


Torsten