Re: [tied] The idea of the root *h1eg^ ("I", "to speak")

On 2006-11-11 05:40, C. Darwin Goranson wrote:

> Looking in the new book by Jim P. Mallory and Douglas Adams, I moticed
> that there are two identical roots, one meaning "I" (first person
> singular nominative) and one meaning "to speak", both with the form
> *h1eg^-.
>
> Could this mean that the word for "I" grew out of an expression
> meaning "the speaker", as a roundabout alternative to a form beginning
> with "m"?
> Or is this word meaning "to speak" originally from something like "to
> extend oneself"?

I like it! Given the fact that the 1sg. pronoun has verbal-looking
extensions (*h1eg^o: ~ *h1eg^om) one could even spaculate that it
developed out of something like 'I (should) say'. *h1ég^- was apparently
a root aorist, so *h1ég^-e/o- (with secondary or primary endings) would
have been the corresponding subjunctive.

Piotr