Re: [tied] Composition/thematic

On 2006-01-20 11:54, tgpedersen wrote:

> This is a dumb question, since I don't know enough details to reject
> this idea I got:
>
> Is it possible that thematic nouns derive from shortened versions of
> composites (leaving out the second component), so that the thematic
> vowel is actually the composition vowel -o- ?

But there was no "composition vowel" *-o- in PIE (as opposed to some of
the daughter languages, where it represents the generalised *-o- of
thematic first members). Athematic first members occurred without any
such thing, cf. Skt. dru-gHni: 'axe' ("tree-slayer") < *dru-gWHnih2,
Slavic medve^dI 'bear' < *medHu-h1ed- 'honey-eater', Gk. kHernib-
'purification with holy water' ("hand-washing") < *g^Hesr.-nigW-, etc.

Piotr