Re: The meaning of life: PIE. *gWiH3w-

On 2008-02-08 22:05, tgpedersen wrote:

> The fact that it applies in both Greek and Sanskrit indicates that the
> rule was an active rule, which goes back to PIE; something like
> <aspirated>V<aspirated> -> <unaspirated>V<aspirated>, but actively
> applied at any given stage (nice, huh? I just invented that).

But Grassmann's Law operates quite differently in Greek and Sanskrit
(there are also traces of something similar in Tocharian), so it's a
convergent but independent change in each case, not a homology. Italic,
Germanic and Armenian preserve DH...DH roots and the contrast between
them and D...DH.

>> Besides, neither Gmc. *GanG-a- nor WGmc.
>> *Ga:-/*Gai- contain old *gWH-.
>
> PIE *kWol-so- > PGerm. *hals, PIE *gWow- > cow etc. How is PIE *gWHo-
> doing?
>
> The thing caught my eye was the alternation PGerm. *gan,g-/*ga:-,
> similar to PIE *gW-em/-ex

LIV lists the two roots as *g^HengH- and *gHeh1-, respectively. The
former can be reconstructed with some confidence, the latter is
supported by Arm. gam and Gk. kikHé:te:n. If the equation is correct, we
have *gH, not *g^H or *gWH here, but Gmc. *Ge:- could also reflect
*g^Heh1- (with some potential IIr. cognates). The best one could do here
would be to unify *g^HengH- with *g^Heh1-, but any connection with
"extended *gW-" seems to be out of the question.

Piotr