From: Rick McCallister
Message: 56976
Date: 2008-04-07
> On 2008-04-07 02:14, Patrick Ryan wrote:Could this have originally been a type of
>
> > A very great number of the PIE roots that we find
> are *C + one of the stem
> > formants above:
> >
> > -*H, -*I/y, -*u/w
> >
> > Another large number combine two of these primary
> stem formants:
> >
> > *CVHi-, *CVHu-
> >
> > Without reaching outside of PIE for answers, is it
> possible to determine
> > what the earliest meaning of these formants?
>
> There's nothing *inside* IE to suggest that roots
> like *//dHeh1-//,
> *//steh2-//, *//deh3-// contain an extension. On the
> contrary, all the
> available evidence shows them to be indivisible, and
> the same is true of
> roots like *//werh1-// 'speak', *//perh2-// 'trade',
> *//gWerh3-//
> 'swallow, devour'. A root like *werh1- has no
> relatives of the form
> *wer- or *werC- (where *C is something else than
> *h1).
>
> Cases like *//drem- ~ *dreh2- ~ *drew-// 'run'
> suggest an analysis in
> terms of pre-PIE **d(e)r-éC-, but the meaning of the
> extensions can
> hardly be recovered, as the roots in question are
> practically synonymous
> and the unextended **der- is not attested. In my
> article on *gWih3w- I
> point out that *-ew- recurs in verbs indicating
> movement (such as
> *drew-, *plew-, *srew- and my hypothetical *gWew-).
>
> "Long diphthongal" roots like *//dHeh1j-// 'suck',
> *//deh2j-//
> 'distribute', *//peh3j-// 'drink' are reconstructed
> by Jasanoff (2003)
> as a special category of "h2e-conjugation
> i-presents", coming in two
> flavours: mobile (3sg. *dHéh1-j-e, 3pl.
> *dH[h1]-j-énti) and static
> (*spé:h2-j-e/*spéh2-j-n.ti 'be sated' [J.'s
> reconstrucion]). Jasanoff
> hypothesises that this *-j- was restricted to
> laryngeal-final roots
> while other roots made *-je/o- presents; he only
> observes but does not
> explain this complementary distribution. If he is
> right, the *-i-
> "extension" ha no meaning, just a _function_ (as a
> present-stem forming
> element). It's all a new line of research, though,
> still disputed and
> far from generally accepted.
>
> Possible traces of a PIE u-extension are visible in
> a few present stems
> like *//terh2w-// 'overcome, cross over' (Skt.
> tú:rvati < *tr.h2-w-é/ó-)
> and *//wel(h)w-// 'turn' (Lat. volvo: etc.), but
> there are so few of
> them that general conclusions about the meaning or
> function of this *w
> are hard to draw (in verbs of movement like these
> two and *//dHenh2w-//
> 'move off' it could perhaps be identified with my
> *-ew- extension).
>
> Piotr