Re: PIE meaning of the Germanic dental preterit

On Sun, 02 Mar 2008 00:50:12 -0000, "tgpedersen"
<tgpedersen@...> wrote:

>--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer Vidal <miguelc@...>
>wrote:
>>
>> On Sat, 01 Mar 2008 23:52:29 -0000, "tgpedersen"
>> <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
>>
>> >Now Jens did it too! And I didn't get an answer first time: Why
>> >PIE e: > Gothic a?
>>
>> Because that's what it gives. What else could it give? Acute
>> long vowels are shortened in Gothic, so the choices are
>> limited to -a, -i or -u. We have -o: > -a, -e: > -a, -i: >
>> -i (I'm not aware of any cases of -u:, but if there were, I
>> suppose -u: > -u).
>
>I read your answer as saying that we have no other case of PIE *-e: >
>Gothic -a ?

Given that *-e: is not a grammatical ending (anymore) in
Pre-Germanic (perhaps some Gothic adverbs show traces of
Isg. *-eh1; we have <þe:> in a monosyllable), finding cases
of plain *-e: is difficult. On the other hand, we have *-e:r
(Goth. fadar) and i-stem Lsg. *-e:i (Goth. -ai), so I don't
think there can be any doubt.

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
miguelc@...