From: Miguel Carrasquer
Message: 43356
Date: 2006-02-10
>--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...>Seconded.
>wrote:
>>
>> I've been thinking about the odd form of the verb 'to live' in
>PIE,
>> *gWíh3w-e/o-. It is usually thought to have been influenced by (or
>based
>> on) the adjective *gWih3wó-, but the relationship is strangely
>irregular
>> (why not a regular stative *gWih3we-h1-je/o-?), and if it is some
>> archaic (and otherwise unknown) kind of present stem derived
>directly
>> from the adjective without any suffixes, I still don't understand
>the
>> accent shift in the verb. I wouldn't expect any such thing, least
>of all
>> when the shift is to a nil-grade root syllable (cf. the <tudáti>
>type).
>>
>> The accent shift, however, would be understandable in a
>reduplicated
>> thematic present of the type represented by *sí-sd-e/o- or
>> *stí-sth2-e/o-, where we have accent retraction in originally
>> trisyllabic stems (from something like **se-sed-é-). If so,
>*gWíh3we/o-
>> would make sense as *gWí-h3w-e/o-, with *h3 < *g(W) by simple
>> dissimilation. The adjective would then be deverbal rather than
>the
>> other way round, and its accent on the thematic vowel is normal.
>At the
>> moment I prefer to leave open the question whether PGmc. *kwikwa-
>is an
>> archaism or an accidental "evolutionary reversal". Suffice it to
>say
>> that the obscuration of the structure of *gWig(W)w-e/o- > *gWih3w-
>e/o-
>> resulted its reanalysis and the backformation of the "neo-root"
>> *gWih3(w)-, with its own retinue of derivatives.
>>
>> If the original root was of the form *gWeu-, then in turn
>the 'cow, head
>> of cattle' word, *gWo:u-s, can be analysed as a corresponding root
>noun
>> (for the 'livestock' semantics, cf. *bHuh2-tlo- >
>*bydlo 'existence,
>> residence' --> 'cattle' in Slavic).
>
>This is truly ingenious, and there must be something correct in it.
>The unexpected regularity of the present stem *gWí-h3w-e/o- is
>enough to win me over.