--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Andrew Jarrette <anjarrette@...>
wrote:
> I have a few questions that I hope any of you might answer:
>
> 1. Is there a PIE origin of the Sanskrit passive formation in -
ya'-, added to the Sanskrit "unstrengthened" root (i.e. zero grade
of *e plus resonant, e-grade of *e plus obstruent)? Or is this a
Sanskrit innovation, and if so, what then is its origin?
There is. The segment *-yé/ó- marks the durative aspect ("present")
to a stem consisting of root + the stative suffix //-eH1-//. Without
the durative marker this forms an aorist, continued in the Greek
intransitive/passive aorist in -e:-n, -e:-s, -e: etc. When the
present-marking suffix takes the accent the stative marker is
reduced to zero-grade /-H1-/: IE prs. *bhudh-H1-yé-tor 'is waking
up', aor. *bhudh-éH1-t 'woke up'.
>
> 2. What is the origin of the Sanskrit 3rd person passive aorist,
formed of the "strengthened" root (full grade of *e plus resonant
plus obstruent, lengthened grade of *e plus single consonant) plus -
i, with prefixed augment (e.g. abodhi)? It is unusual that it only
occurs in the 3rd person singular.
Klaus T. Schmidt has found Tocharian examples ending in *-a: from
schwa, most notably Toch.B kla:wa 'was heard' = Ved. ás'ra:vi,
injunctive s'rá:vi 'was heard'. That must be IE *k^lów-&. It looks
like the collective of a root noun, i.e. something like "(the
is/was) a lot of listening".
> 3. What is the origin of the Germanic ingressive (or is
it "inchoative" or "inceptive"?) verb endings -nan (Gothic), -na
(Old Norse), etc.? Is it related to the perfect passive participle,
Gothic -ans, ON -inn (and further to Sanskrit perfect passive
participles in -na)? Or is it an independent formation, and if so,
what is its IE provenance?
They have two sources: (1) Old middle-voice forms of nasal-infix
derivatives from adjectives. Hittite has tepu-s 'small' => tep-n-u-
zzi 'makes small, reduces, subdues', Skt. dabhnóti 'damages'. (2)
Middle forms of factitives based on PPP in *-no-, i.e. *-ne-H2- (>
PIE *-naH2-) meaning "make -ed", so Goth. fullnan is properly 'make
(oneself) filled'. In both sets, the old inflection on the middle
voice which is demanded by the semantics has been replaced by the
forms of the active.
Jens