Hello once again to cybalist members from a member who was out of contact for several months due to a loss of internet service associated with a change of residence. Glad to be back.
My questions are:
1. Peter Schrijver agrees with C. Watkins that Latin molere, sonere, vomere, tonere reflect original *melH-, *swenH-, *wemH-, *tenH-. While I agree that the Sanskrit correspondences do suggest the presence of a laryngeal after the resonants, what I don't understand is why the sequences *melH- etc. should become mol- etc. rather than mel- etc. (especially in the case of the nasals). What sound law explains this? And also, what explains the a of Lithuanian malti and Gothic and OHG malan? Was o-grade possible in the present of some thematic verbs, and does this explain molere and perhaps the others? What about Germanic class VI and VII verbs - did some of these have o-grade, or did they mostly have *a or *h2e or *H or other?
2. I didn't know that the vocalic laryngeals did not become respectively o ora in Slavic and Baltic. What are the Slavic and Baltic reflexes of vocalic laryngeals, e.g. in words similar to *dHtos, *dhHtos, *stHtos, etc.?
3. Peter Schrijver vehemently disagrees that Latin castus might be related to Sanskrit ��sti "instructs, punishes, controls" as a probable perfect passive participle (= Sanskrit �istah "commanded, instructed"), which some scholars suggest might be the origin of the meaning "pious, religious, holy, conforming to rules or rites" in Latin, as opposed to the meaning "pure, chaste, guiltless" which they say is of other origin and may be related to car�re "to miss, be without". I would tend to think that the fundamental meaning is "morally correct" (especially as relates to sin, including carnal sin) from the same root as ��sti, and that the meaning "chaste, pure, guiltless" arose from this. Cf. cast�g�re for the meaning, English castigate (hence castus
could essentially mean "corrected, disciplined > morally correct > chaste, guiltless". Anyone have any thoughts as to whether my thinking on this one is flawed or misguided?
Andrew