Long vowel roots

Supposedly roots like *pax-, *pax-s-, *pax-i- "protect" and *poxW-,
*poxW-i- "drink" are a problem. They like to add the non-ablauting
suffix *-s- and *-i- but no one knows when and why.
So I was reminded of the recent discussion of Eastern Romance *-s#
(> *-x) > *-i. Perhaps the three are related? Of course there's
hittite pah_-s-, but not that the Eastern Romance rule works in
auslaut only and would immediately give rise to Ausgleich.

So it's
*pa-s- > *pa-x- > *pa-i-
*po-s- > *po-xW- > *po-i-
There's a problem with the different laryngeals in *pax- and *poxW-.
But here I'll have to be consistent. I've claimed that *pa-
"protect, feed" is a loan from Austronesian (or from a third
language to both). Therefore I claim the root is *pa- and that the
laryngeals are shaped by the preceding vowel, not the other way
round.


Torsten