Middle: *-to, *-toi, *-tor

It is supposedly a difficult problem to reconcile the middle forms
in *-r, eg Latin -tur, -ntur, with those without, eg Greek primary
-tai; -ntai; secondary -to; -nto. Also, the -o of the r-less forms is odd,
but it seems right, somehow, before the -r.

So maybe we should be looking for somthing which alternates *-to, *-tor?

from Burrow: The Sanskrit Language
"In addition to the ordinary future Sanskrit created a second or
periphrastic future based on the agent nouns in -tar. In the third
person the nom. sg., du. and pl. of such nouns functions as the second
future without any addition : kartá:, kartá:rau, kartá:ras. In the
first and second persons forms of the verb 'to be' are added to the
nom. sg. of agent noun, in the dual and plural as well as in the
singular : kartá:smi, kartá:si; kartá:svas ; kartá:smas. The function
of the second future is to express the future in connection with some
specified time : s´vó vras.t.á: 'it will rain tomorrow', etc. This
type of future first begins to appear in the Bra:hman.a period, and
its use continues later, though it is never anything like as common as
the first future. There was created also a corresponding middle,
which, however, is exceedingly rare, since it appears to have been
current in the living language for only a very limited period. The
special middle forms, which exist only for the first and second
persons, are as follows: S. 1 kartá:he, 2 kartá:se, D. 1 kartá:svahe,
2 kartá:sa:the, P. 1 kartá:smahe, 2 kartá:dhve."

Is there a connection here? One further connection: The agent noun
suffix seems capable of losing the *-t-, and may be involved in
dectic pronouns: 'there', Dutch 'er'.


Torsten