--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...> wrote:
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
>
> > That n/r alternation looks similar to that of the heteroclitic
> > neuter nouns and that postulated for the 3rd pl. ending, -n(t)- vs
> > -r-. Is the mechanism similar, ie that the -r- was once a
> > word-final -n# (and after it changed a thematic vowel was added)?
>
> Yes, I think it's basically the same mechanism. Namely, *-to-, *-no-
> and *-ro- arose as different thematisations of the same original
> suffix -- participial *-(e)nt-. The source of the *-r- variant may
> have been the the neuter form of the participle, *-n(t)# > *-r,
> analogically influencing forms with non-final *n;
(...)
> Piotr
Hi!
Much by coincidence I am these days thinking exactly about that.
Wrestling against it would be more fair to my current state :).
Anyway, about the present primary desinences of the athematic verbs,
for instance, please, could anyone help me to understand it's origin?
For me it seems easy to accept that the *-m- in *-mi came from the 1st
singular pronoun (h1me, before *eg'h- was added?).
The 2nd is a bit strange, because if it came from *tuH, it should be
-ti, not *-si. May it be because of -ti > *-si ? If so, why not on
plural? Maybe *-i is the guilty one? The sing. 3rd should be -si too,
if it remained the same since before the change of the 2nd.
But the 3rd is by large much stranger. Where is this *-nti from, o
Iuppiter? It certainly help if it's related to the *-r of the middle
voice, but still it seems not to be from any pronoun. As, at least in
Latin (still the only ancient IE language in which I can cry for help)
there is no 3rd personal pronoun, it seems quite coherent to not have
that desinence from it, but still we have desinence, and now,
coherently, without a good place to find...
BTW, since my early post about the h1es- verb, I am much interested in
IEan studies. Any suggestion about how to study it on college, since
my university (USP - www.usp.br ) doesn't have that course?
Thanks in advance,
Edgard Bikelis.