Re: b/m alternation in Thacian, Illyria and Abanian

At 6:33:50 AM on Tuesday, April 1, 2008, tgpedersen wrote:

>>>> And in Gmc. [ON <þorskr> 'codfish'] has a perfectly
>>>> good etymology, from *þurs- (PIE *ters- 'to dry').

>>> Would that be with a k-suffix?

>> Yes. Krahe & Meid III, §194.1 note that deadjectival
>> derivation of verbs via a Gmc. k-suffix is especially
>> frequent in ON, offering the pairs <dýrka> ~ <dýrr>,
>> <blíðka> ~ <blíðr>, <minnka> ~ <minnr>, <seinka> ~ <seinn>,
>> <víðka> ~ <víð>, <þurka> ~ <þurr>, and <samka> ~ <samr>.

> But those are verbs, Brian.

Yes, I got sidetracked into thinking about the relationship
between <þurr> and <þurka> and forgot the original issue.
What I wrote is actually relevant, however, as it explains
the lack of /s/ in the verb: it's derived from the
adjective. <Þurr> itself should be from something like
*þurzu-; the <rr> is part of the root, even though the
second <r> is dropped before consonantal inflectional
endings.

<Þorskr> would appear to be regularly derived from *þurskaz.
The k-suffix in animal names is usually found in weak
masculines (as <-ki>), but there is <eyrnablaðkr> 'earlobe'
(<blað> 'a leaf').

Brian