[tied] Re: *bhe-, -y, -w

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...>
wrote:

> tgpedersen wrote:
>
> > I like the proposed mechanism *Bw-i- > *B-i-, for B = labial

stop.

> > That might explain the variation *bay-/*baw- in the AfroAsiatic
> > root.
>
> Perhaps, provided that such a reconstruction is correct (few

features of

> Afroasiatic have been reconstructed with much confidence). You'd

have to

> ask a specialist in Afroasiatic.
>
> > And BTW, I still think it would be nice to connect the *bh-w-
> > (possibly *bh-y-) root with *bh-h2- "appear, come into this

world".

>
> The usual "master gloss" is 'shine', though of course 'appear'

often

> occurs as a related meaning. One can imagine all sorts of

connections,

> the problem is only that some of them may be hard to demonstrate.
>
> > The semantic mesh nicely and it could be used to explain the
> > otherwise unexplainable -ba- of Latin imperfectum.
>
> I wouldn't say that it's otherwise unexplainable. Rix, for

example,

> explains it as extracted from the Proto-Italic reduplicated

pluperfect

> of *bHwah2- (his reconstruction of the full grade), i.e. *bHu-

bHwah2- >

> *fu-Ba:- 'had become (and continued to be...)', reanalysed as the
> imperfect of *fu- (by then synonymous with *es-). One may disagree

with

> his explanation, but it is _an_ explanation, and one that has at

least

> some degree of plausibility. To come up with a better one you'd

have to

> explain just how a verb meaning 'appear' became compounded with

other

> verbs into a new grammatical form. How would you analyse a form

like

> <ama:bam>? 'I love-appear'?
>

You have to take into account the semantics of existence at the
time. There were two worlds, one material, one spiritual, like two
banks of a river. Coming into existence, beginning to be as it is to
us meant passing from the spritual world to the material world

http://www.angelfire.com/rant/tgpedersen/bHA.html

disapparing meant crossing that river to the other realm. The
traditional primary sense 'shine' should be seen in a context where
there is no artificial light, any phenomenon which emits light
afford a view to the other world. Check the Benveniste quote.

AfaIk the 'aspect' of the Latin imperfect (punctual or stative) is
determined by the inherent sense of the root. I don't know whether
an active root from *bhah2- in Latin would have punctual ('coming
into this world') or stative sense ('being in this world'). The
actuall existing Latin cognate fo:r fari is passive, ie someone is
being shined on or revealed to, which seems to be punctual.
Whichever it was it might have started as a suffix of roots of the
corresponding aspectual sense. I'm afraid I can't get closer to it
now.


Torsten