Re: I'm back with a few questions

Hello to everyone!

I am the new one on the list. My name is Dusan Vukotic (Serbia) and I am an amateur "tongue-digger". Thanks a lot to moderator for approving my membership.

It seems to me that all this "laringeal" theories have mislead us and directed the "lingua" science to the death end of the road. Why I think so?

1. During the period when the man was mute or unable for an articulated speech only velars (k,g, h) were on his "menu"; just as it is today in the world of the vast majority of carnivorous mammals. If this supposition were right then any further "larinx" researches would be of no importance in the future.

2. It looks that vowels could be observed only as "auxiliary means" in genesis of speach; i. e. they were used just for the creation of "notion's distinctions". Example: molest, malice, melt; blue, blow, bleed, blush; sun, son; tone (muscle), tank (drink heavily), thin...

3. Some consonants were changed in the same sense as I ascribed it to vowels above (notion distinction - p,b,v,f; t,d,th; k,g,h; s,z) and, finally, palatals came as an "enforced economy of the tongue".

Cordially,

Dusan Vukotic

From: "andrew jarrette" <jarretteandrew@...>

Date: Tue Jan 24, 2006 2:01 am

Subject: I'm back with a few questions

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 çâsti "instructs, punishes, controls" as a probable perfect passive participle (= Sanskrit çistah "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 carêre "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 çâsti, and that the meaning "chaste, pure, guiltless" arose from this. Cf. castîgâre 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