Re: Priimary Stem Formants: =*H, -*i/y, *-u/w

----- Original Message -----
From: "Patrick Ryan" <proto-language@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2008 4:46 AM
Subject: Re: [tied] RE: Priimary Stem Formants: =*H, -*i/y, *-u/w


>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...>
> To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2008 4:19 AM
> Subject: Re: [tied] RE: Priimary Stem Formants: =*H, -*i/y, *-u/w
>

> > Patrick Ryan pisze:

***

I did not!!!!!

***

<snip>

> > The funny thing about etymology is that it turns words into fractals. As
> > long as you manage to "magnify" them, you see more and more internal
> > complexity rather than the final Lego blocks. For example, <young> [jVN]
> > doesn't decompose into CV-type "proto-words" but rather into roots of
> > the same order of surface complexity as <young> itself. The first
> > element of the compound, *h2ju-, is the zero grade of the neuter noun
> > *h2oju/*h2aju- 'vital force' (triconsonantal), the second is the
> > Hoffmann suffix (originally perhaps a root noun, possibly also
> > triconsonantal). Only the adjectival suffix *-k^o- is simpler, but who
> > knows what it was "originally". My microscope can't blow it up any
> > further.
> >
> > Piotr

***

Have the scholars who postulated an initial *H2 in *yeu-, 'young', by any
chance looked as *yeu-, 'mix'?

I suspect an initial *H2 here.

As for *H2ayo-, 'vital force', and *H2ayew-, it is instructive to look at
*H2aw-, 'wet' and *H2aw, 'blow'. For my work, I know, but common sense will
tell you that *H2 there derives from two different 'laryngeals': once *H
associated with 'water', the other *H associated with 'air.



Patrick