*mn-u

From: tgpedersen
Message: 38573
Date: 2005-06-13

Tocharian A has 3rd person -m, perhaps from the
> >> same suffix? There are supposedly loans from Tocharian in Finno-
> >> Ugric.
> >
> >Do you mean Tochaian B -m. (anusva:ra)? That is always from *-n-,
> >never *-m-. The IE background is rather securely *nu 'now'.
>

If "me" is *m-n- then "at me" might me *mn-ú, with a -u locative.
That's a nice morpheme sequence, you can use it to generate
*mnú- > *nu- "now"
and that elusive 1st pers. sometimes -m-, sometimes -w- morpheme
*-mnw- > *-m-
*-mnw- > *-w-

also

Sanskr. 1st sg. subj. *-óm.n. > -a:, *-ómn-i > -a:ni .

That way there's no need to postulate *m-n- with an extra *-n- in
the plural. It also fits in with my (and Toporov's) idea that the
*m-n- morpheme of the verbal inflection is from *m-n- "mind, think
etc".

Also, suddenly the three conjuctions of Hittite

-nu- (< *mnú ?)
-sa-
-ta-

begin to look like

-m (< *-mn?)
-s
-t

otiose or not.


Torsten