From: Patrick Ryan
Message: 39385
Date: 2005-07-22
----- Original Message -----
From: "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, July 22, 2005 7:56 AM
Subject: [tied] Re: Short and long vowels
> >
> > Sort of intriguing with the *y-coloring of the laryngeal *H in I-I
> > zero-grade, hmmm?
> >
>
> Any connection with the -y- of the 'long vowel' verbal roots, eg
> *poh3(-y)- "drink"? Is -y- the ghost of a departed laryngeal?
>
>
> Torsten
***
Patrick:
It is utterly amazing how the very roots which have led to almost bloody
head-scratching on my part seem to come up so regularly.
My best GUESS on this one is that it originally meant "drink" not 'drink',
i.e. 'to drink an alcoholic substance', namely 'perry', made from 'pears',
which were so seedy and tough as to be practically inedible as fruit but had
the sugar content for alcohol production.
The first element, *po- refers to fermentation effervescence, combined with
*ha, 'water', yielding *poh-, 'bubbly'. The *-y(e)- is a method of forming
verbs from nouns.
***