tgpedersen wrote:
> Schmalstieg proposes to analyse the "be" verb as *bhe/o-, plus two
> extensions -y and -w. He does the same with "drink": *pe/o + -y,
> + -w.
Yes, the last Mohican of the anti-laryngeal camp. William Schmalstieg's
pet idea is that selected "laryngeal effects" can be mimicked by
assuming original diphthongs plus a number of rules to handle them
(including monophthongisations such as *ow > o:, etc.), allegedly making
the laryngeals superfluous. That of course doesn't work, since the
laryngeals do a number of other things apart from causing colouration
and compensatory lengthening.
> BTW I wonder if the pre/postpositon *bhi "at" is related somehow.
> Miguel tried to link it as a preverb to Polish 'po-'. The
> alternation -u/-i smacks of a locative too?
The Slavic preposition/preverb *po (*pa- in compound nouns like
*pa-meNtI 'memory', cf. Lith. pa-/po-) means mostly 'after' or has the
distributive meaning of English <each> (in "five pounds each"), or
refers to scattered distribution or movement without direction ('all
over, about'). It is usually derived from PIE *h2po-, which would make
it a relative of English <of>, <off>, <eft> and <after>, as well as Gk.
apo, Skt. apa-, etc. You must know it; it's one of your favourite roots ;).
Piotr