Etherman23:
> How does *sa: arise? Certainly not from **soH2.
There is no *sa:, it's *sex (or the less kinky
transcription: *seh2), ending in a laryngeal. I've
already explained my view on IE feminines in general.
Afaic, IE feminines were derived from old "animate
collectives" in *-ex- (the animatized version of
inanimate *-x). Hence, originally, feminines were
simply declined as animate, just like the later
'masculine', complete with nominative in *-ex-s.
So *sex was most likely born by analogy with other
feminine nouns and adjectives that had developed
at the latest stage of IE, which always ended in
*-ex.
Therefore *so + *-ex => *sex by analogy. If it had
been **sox, it would appear more like an inanimate in
*-x and that's bad because it's a feminine, right?
= gLeN
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