Re: Not "catching the wind " , or, what ARE we discussing?

At 2:16:50 AM on Sunday, April 20, 2008, tgpedersen wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott"
> <BMScott@...> wrote:

[...]

>> I expect that Sean was doubting that the <-t> of <salt>
>> is the neuter NA singular ending, not that the latter is
>> <-t>. And as Jouppe and I have already pointed out, the
>> doubt is clearly justified, since all forms of the
>> adjective have the <t> (e.g., indef. sing. nom. masc.
>> <saltr>, fem. <sölt>).

> Of course it does. The question is whether the adjective
> was generalized from the indef. n. n./a. sg. form.

Seems unlikely. The noun, adjective, and verb all have a
reflex of PGmc. *t throughout Gmc. There also seems to have
been a zero-grade *sultjo: (OHG <sulza> 'salty water, brine,
jelly', OSax. <sultia> 'saltiness'). The dental is also
present in Balto-Slavic (e.g., Lith. <saldùs>, Latv.
<sal^ds>, OCS <sladUkU> Cz. <sladký>, SCr. <sla``dak>
'sweet').

Brian