> What I imagine, very sketchily, is an early situation with regard to
> verb stems something like this:
>
> PPIE *CaC- -> PIE *CeC-, normal neutral stem
> PPIE *a-CaC- -> PIE *iCoC- -> *CoC-,
> indicating singularity of action
> PPIE *Ca-CaC -> PIE *CeCC-,
> indicating plurality of action, ie multiple subjects, repetition
> (and similarly with root vowels i and u, obviously)
And I also believe that these verbal stems of the hi-conjugation
were nominal in nature. Cf. the words of the "language of bird
names".
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/25888
Now watch me do tricks with my new nominal prefix:
PPIE *pad- -> PIE *ped-
PPIE *a-pad- -> *i-pod- -> PIE *pod-
Nice, huh? I get this free of charge by positing the prefix.
This ablaut relation is particularly hard to crack, since
there is normally not any surroundings to the root to "blame"
for the ablaut. The attempts I've seen to derive it from
different cases have not been convincing.
It would be nice to observe that the a- prefix means "singular"
or "piece of" in the language of bird names. In fact, it's the
other way round. Back to the drawing board.
Torsten