--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
>
> Krause-Thomas, 201
> "Das Wort für 'machen' . . . zeigt in A einen merkwürdigen Wechsel
der
> Formen ya- und ypa-, wobei ypa- in den Formen mit idg. Themavokal o
> steht. In A sonst normal nach Kl. III: Akt. ypam, yat, yas.; ypamäs,
> *yac, ypeñc. Med. ypama:r, yata:r, yatär; ypamtär, *yacär, ypantär.
> PPs. ypant; ypama:n; Ger. I yal; Inf. yatsi."
>
> Metathesis py- > yp- ?
It does not seem to have been given any sensible explanation. But
since /p/ is restricted to places with thematic vowel *-o-, it looks
very much like a matter of palatalization, i.e. some phoneme has been
lost before *-e-, but retained as /p/ before *-o-. No known (morpho)
phoneme does this regularly in Tocharian, so it looks like a
spontaneous change, and it *is* a lone example. The obvious candidate
is *-w- which sometimes alternates with <p>, and is palatalized to y
in B (though not in A, cf. B yente, A want 'wind'). It will seem that
the combination *y-w'- (with palatalized w before *-e-) was
assimilated to *y-y-. The root vowel Toch.A -a- is Proto-Toch. /æ/
from earlier *-o- or *-e:-, of which the latter is the obvious
solution, for /e:/ can arise through contraction of e+e across a lost
*-y- (B trey, A tre 'three' from *træs < *tre:s < IE *tréy-es). So we
have *yew-e- > *yew'-e- > *yey-e- > *yee- > *ye:- > *yæ- > TA ya-.
And, with thematic vowel *-o-, *yew-o- > *yäwæ- > *ywæ- > ypa- (with
something like [b]?).
So, it will seem that *yew-o-/*yew-e- can yield Toch.A ypa-/ya-
without much fuss. As for the identity of the root, the best
comparandum is probably Skt. yu- 'connect, hold tight, harness' with
prs. yáuti and yuváti. The structure *yéw-e/o- could be the original
subjunctive. Perhaps the semantic development from 'connect' to 'make'
goes via something like 'knit'.
Jens