Re: [tied] Which laryngeal in "father"?

----- Original Message -----
From: "glen gordon" <glengordon01@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2005 6:27 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Which laryngeal in "father"?


> Chris Culver:
> > "Questions remain as to the reflexes of laryngeals.
> > PIE *h1 definitely yielded CToch. *a in peak
> > position (cf Toch. B pa:cer 'father')"
> >
> > Now, I thought that the 'father' was *ph2ter.
>
> It is. (Actually, technically *ph2te:r in the
> nominative unless you meant the stem *ph2ter- with
> the hyphen at the end.)
>
> I'm no Tocharian expert but you always have to keep
> in mind the possibility of irregular changes with
> nursery words like these. Outside of Tocharian, *h2
> is well represented and *ph2ter can even be derived
> from the verb *peh2-, sensibly giving the word
> "father" an original meaning of "provider".
>
>
> = gLeN

***
Patrick:

My, what talented youngsters those ancients had - mastering agentive
suffixes (-*ter) while still in the nursery.

***