On 2007-03-14 04:23, Sean Whalen wrote:
> PIE *ghdo:m > Pre-Latin *hu:m and then an adjective
> was formed from the generalized nominative just as
> *bho:r > fu:r >> fu:rti:vus.
Looks like an excellent idea to me, though it's hard to be sure what the
"regular" development of prevocalic *d(H)g^H- in Latin would have been.
If Lat. sitis < *dHgWHi-ti-, one would expect *su:m (!). However, in
such a messy paradigm the initial consonant would probably have been
levelled out from the weak cases, where the simplification of the
cluster to *g^H- (> Lat. h-) was regular. <humus>, on the other hand,
seems to reflect the weak stem *g^Hm.-. It follows that <hu:ma:nus> is
not based on <homo> but directly on the 'earth' word, which of course is
fine semantically.
Piotr