Re[9]: [tied] Mille (thousand)

At 1:49:08 PM on Monday, March 10, 2008, Patrick Ryan wrote:

> From: "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...>

> <snip>

>> So /n-/ in <nickname>, <newt>, <Nash>, etc. must be a
>> morpheme, eh? And whatever can have possessed the Irish
>> that they began playing silly buggers with initial
>> consonants?

> Being Irish myself, I can assure you absolutely that
> "playing silly buggers" is a direct outcome of too many
> people drinking way too much for too much of the time.

Somehow I doubt that fossilized sandhi effects are properly
ascribed to a dhrap o' the whiskey.

> But I would suspect you yourself might be having nip or
> two if you are thinking these paltry few examples have
> anything in common with the flood of s-mobile forms: just
> look how big the s-section is in Pokorny.

That would hardly keep them from sharing a *mechanism*.
(And while the number of roots with s-mobile is indeed quite
impressive, there are also plenty of *s- roots without it.)

> You cannot really be serious in doubting *s- was a
> morpheme meaning something, can you?

I am serious in admitting that as a genuine possibility,
yes.

Brian