--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "aquila_grande" <aquila_grande@...>
wrote:
>
> Yes, the religious contact is a fact. Before that, the Greeks got
> the alphabet from Semitic speakers, and probably had commercial
> contact with them.
"Old" PIE had only common and neuter genders (eg. Hitite). The f.
gender appeared in PIE with the suffix *-h2 (*-x), which marks f. sg.
and n.pl.(collectives), (and which is of substrate origin(?), note the
frequent occurrence of a suffix -ak in Mediterranean substrate words).
Strangely, in Semitic *-t- marks f. sg. and collectives too (as I
remember it, please correct me if I'm wrong). Some sort of
philosophical/religious influence?
Torsten