Re: The oddness of Gaelic words in p-

From: tgpedersen
Message: 59355
Date: 2008-06-21

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "dgkilday57" <dgkilday57@...> wrote:
>
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@> wrote:
> >
> > > > > _The Bronze Tables of Iguvium_ [1959], p. 244.
> > > > >
> > > > > dei . crabouie . persei . tuer . perscler . uaseto . est .
> > > > > pesetomest . peretomest / frosetomest . daetomest . tuer .
> > > > > perscler . uirseto . auirseto . uas . est . di . grabouie .
> > > > > persei . mersei . esu . bue / peracrei . pihaclu . pihafei
> > > > >
> > > > > 'Jupiter Grabovius, if in thy sacrifice there hath been any
> > > > > omission, any sin, any transgression, any damage, any
> > > > > delinquency, if in thy sacrifice there be any seen or
> > > > > unseen fault, Jupiter Grabovius, if it be right, with this
> > > > > perfect ox as a propitiatory offering may purification be
> > > > > made.'
> > > >
> > > > BTW Buck calls 'tuer perscler' a genitive, can that be true?
> > >
> > > Yes. This appears to be a partitive genitive, whose scope in
> > > Umbrian was considerably extended. Buck (p. 195 in the 1928
> > > edition) calls two other examples "bolder than anything in
> > > Latin":
> >
> > ...
> > That was nice to know, but the thing that puzzled me was two -r
> > suffixes in an expression which is translated as a locative. Is
> > there any connection to Germanic locative -r in demonstratives
> > etc?
>
> No. The Gmc. -r is an adverbial formant which actually was *-r, as
> seen in Lith. <kur~>, Old Lat. <quo:r>, Lat. <cu:r>. The Umbrian
> gen. sg. in -r is a rhotacized -s, which appears as such in earlier
> Umbrian as well as Oscan.

I've been playing with the idea that they were endingless locatives of
a heteroclitic paradigm originally obtained by adding a *-(V)n suffix.
But no matter.

...
> > > > > W. Meyer-Lübke, _Wiener Studien_ 25:105ff., observed that
> > > > > Spanish has not only reflexes of L. <pecca:re> etc. with
> > > > > the expected moral meanings, but also <peca> 'freckle,
> > > > > speck, spot' and <pecoso> 'freckled'; he also provided a
> > > > > gloss "pecosus graece leprosus". Thus he argued in effect
> > > > > that <pecca:re> is a denominative to *pecca 'mark, spot,
> > > > > blemish, macula'. A. Walde, LEW s.v. <pecco:>, rejected
> > > > > this idea on the grounds that L. <pecca:re> is
> > > > > intransitive, <macula:re> transitive, and so an original
> > > > > intr. sense of <pecca:re>, such as 'stumble' from
> > > > > *ped(i)-ka:-, should be sought. However, Walde's criticism
> > > > > can be easily sidestepped. Assuming *pecca 'mark, spot,
> > > > > blemish' in pre-classical Latin, we derive a regular
> > > > > transitive denominative *pecca:re 'to mark, spot, blemish',
> > > > > and regular deverbative nouns <pecca:tus> 'act of
> > > > > blemishing; blemish; fault' and <pecca:tum> 'result of
> > > > > blemishing; blemish; bad mark; sin'.
> > > > > If *pecca and *pecca:re were replaced by <macula> and
> > > > > <macula:re> in Roman Latin, say around 200 BCE, surviving
> > > > > only in provincial Hispanic Latin, the derived nouns could
> > > > > have been reinterpreted in classical Latin as deverbatives
> > > > > to <pecca:re> 'to commit a fault, go wrong, sin'.
> > > > >
> > > > > Combining all the evidence from Latin, Umbrian, and
> > > > > Spanish, it seems best to regard L. <pecca:re> as
> > > > > indirectly based on a noun *pecca 'mark, spot, blemish'
> > > > > unconnected with *ped- 'foot'. A better source for this
> > > > > noun is *pek^- 'to set in order; decorate, make pretty;
> > > > > make pleasant, joyful' which we find in English <fair> (OE
> > > > > <fæger>, PGmc *fagraz, PIE *pok^rós), Lithuanian <púos^iu>
> > > > > (*po:k^ejo:) 'I decorate', Middle Irish <a:il> (*po:k^li-)
> > > > > 'pleasant', etc. Most Italic words in -ko/ka:- use /i/ as
> > > > > a connecting vowel, but a few have the suffix attached
> > > > > directly to a consonant, like L. <juvenca> 'heifer', U.
> > > > > acc. sg. <iveka>, <iuenga> 'id.', and some ethnonyms, U.
> > > > > <Naharkum> 'Narcan', <Turskum> 'Tuscan'. If it belongs
> > > > > here, *pecca could represent a *pek^-ka: 'beauty mark;
> > > > > freckle', acquiring a derogatory sense 'bad mark; blemish;
> > > > > fault' in the specialized language of Italic ritual,
> > > > > but preserved as Sp. <peca> in practically its original
> > > > > sense.
> >
> > Why the de-gemination? And why not connect it directly to NWB
> > *paik- etc
http://www.angelfire.com/rant/tgpedersen/KuhnText/01paik-betr_gen.html
> > ?
>
> Degemination is regular in Spanish; cf. <boca> 'mouth', <seco>
> 'dry', etc. As long as I have a halfway plausible derivation from
> a root listed by Pokorny in the IEW, I have no reason to derive it
> from NWB; obscurum per obscurius esset ...

In general, I don't get that line of reasoning. Data is data. In
particular not if by 'obscure' you mean 'unknown'. And then there is
the small semantic problem that your/Pokorny's gloss means the exact
opposite.
> >
> > > > > > There's the *-k-. Note that mancus, like manus, with
> > > > > > its /a/ must be a 'mot populaire'. So would then peccatus
> > > > > > etc.
> > >
> > > I don't know how seriously this "mot populaire" business can be
> > > taken as a grab-bag for words with /a/-vocalism.
> >
> > It's a label and E.-M. is pretty consistent about it. The
> > interesting part is whether they represent loans from another
> > language.
>
> Some of those /a/-words are widely distributed in IE. See what
> E.-M. list under <cachinno:>, which they consider a "mot expressif"
> (a cop-out, like "mot populaire").

Even worse, since unlike 'mot populaire' it is not interpretable
sociologically.

> > > Are we to suppose that the PIE upper crust spoke a refined
> > > literary standard, carefully minding their /e/'s and /o/'s,
> > > while the ham-tongued huddled masses could only grunt out /a/'s?
> >
> > PPIE *a > PIE *e/o/zero according to theories by Møller and in
> > this group by Glen Gordon and Miguel, IIRC. The PIE ablaut vowel
> > has to come from somewhere; *a is the most convenient place in
> > the vowely neighborhood, accordingly all words with PIE *a (apart
> > from those from schwa secundum) are foreign or external to the
> > language. Piotr tries to avoid that by sticking an extra vowel
> > into a PPIE *i *a *u system. I don't think that holds. PIE had
> > i-, u- and thematic stems, that would be PPIE i-, u-, and
> > a-stems, which would make sense. English has done something
> > similar to its *a, it's now partly *e, partly *o (approx.);
> > something similar has happened in Danish although (approx. *ä a),
> > with the added refinement that the further apart they are, the
> > more working class Copenhagen it is. So you got it the wrong
> > way round ;-).
>
> No, _I_ didn't; E.-M. and Chantraine and the other advocates of
> "mots populaires" did.
>
> I believe that Middle PIE /a/ remained /a/ in Late PIE _at least_
> in closed monosyllables, rather than being deflected to /e/ or /o/
> or reduced to zero, _probably_ in some other closed syllables, and
> _possibly_ it was restored by analogy in certain environments
> almost as soon as it was deflected or lost.

That's a bit loose. Which environments? The stems in /a/ I've seen
don't seem to allow for defining any such environment.

> That is, I do not believe that any stage of PIE ever lacked /a/
> entirely.

English does, with a few exceptions.

> I also do not believe that we need to resort to wholesale borrowing
> to explain words with /a/. The Latin non-denominative statives, for
> example, comprise a sufficiently large, important, and coherent
> group that it is incredible that they should have been borrowed
> from Paleo-Venetic or whatever. Unreasonably large-scale borrowing
> is another cop-out.

Here's what I think:
PIE borrowed from some substrate an individuating suffix *-ak-,
alternating with *-ax (in auslaut). This was used to designate females
and collectives (cf. Semitic *-Vt-). Only later, when *-ax had
weakened to *-a: was it given oblique cases by analogy with the
thematic (ie. PPIE a-stem) conjugation.
Since the PIE verb stem could also be used as a nominal (participle,
infinitive or verbal noun), another nominal could be obtained from it
by adding the *-ax (> *-a:) suffix to it. This nominal was used in a
periphrastic constructo which became the various IE a-stem verbs.
Basque does have a nominalizing/diminutive suffix -ko. As for loan of
diminutive suffixes, English -y/-ie has become very productive in German.
Note that the PIE f.nom. -a: does not have the PIE nom. -s. That
proves foreign origin.

> > Yes, I think those IE languages which arrived earliest in Europe
> > probably retained *a where all the later ones (except IIr.) had
> > *e/o/zero. IIr. might be from a mix of a lower class a-language
> > with a higher-class one with *e/o/zero; the latter one to explain
> > the secondary palatalizations. A mix, I think, is a better
> > explanation, *a > *e/o/zero > *a is too weird.
>
> Sanskrit certainly has some mixing, but since short /e/ and /o/ are
> absent from the phonology (with old /e/ showing itself through the
> palatalizations), I see no way to escape concluding that
> Indo-Iranian did indeed reduce the three-way distinction, /a/e/o/,
> to /a/. Lots of weird things happen in this business.

With that proviso, I'll stick to my explanation.

> >
> > > > For semantic reasons, I suspect the whole mess of *bak-
> > > > "staff", *pek- "mark", *pak- "pole, construct, area", *mak-
> > > > "spot, blemish" to be ultimately related (*p- > *b- > *m-
> > > > happened in Basque). The fact that the suffix of *peþ-k- or
> > > > *pex-k- (or from *paþ-k-/pax-k-, Venetic(?) *paik-
> > > > "deceive" in the Kuhn quote?) is of the form *-k-, not *-Vk-
> > > > sets them apart, which speaks for loan status (I suspect
> > > > stops in PIE were spirantized before other stops, cf
> > > > Sabellan, Iranian and Germanic; Germanic generalized it).
> > >
> > > I don't see how one original root could appear three or four
> > > different ways, unless we are dealing with musical instruments,
> > > 'guitar', 'mandolin', and the like, with names getting borrowed
> > > back and forth all over the place.
> >
> > I think that *bak- thing must have been something pretty special.
> > You might enter into the world of my delusions here:
> > http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/48817
> > The Basques had no reason to borrow a word for an ordinary stick
> > from the Romans, it is more likely 'herabgesunkenes Kulturgut'.
>
> They probably borrowed it in the specialized sense 'military staff'
> (for whacking recalcitrant privates, as Clearchus did in Xenophon's
> account) or the like, and semantic devaluation followed. That sort
> of thing happens all the time.

Nah, I think it has to do with sacrifice. Sacrifice was an important
and high-status technology. Think 'macte!'.


> > > Here we are dealing with common words for common notions, not
> > > exotic instruments.
> >
> > I disagree. Common words don't need borrowing in intact societies.
>
> I thought that was my point. If you want synchronous examples of
> related words beginning with p-, b-, and m- in a non-mutating
> language, you almost have to go to the realm of musical
> instruments. English has <pandore>, <bandore>, and <mandolin>, and
> I am too tired to dig around for other examples.

Thank you for that example. In the future we will only have to prove
vagrancy.

> English <pud>, <bud>, and <mud> cannot be etymologically related
> this way.

Surprise: Da. budding "pudding".
You've quoted Kuhn's P- article before. Try reading what he has to say
on the subject. And check the list of words in p-, and their
alternations in b- and f- in Jysk.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/30336
This alternation corresponds to no regular sound law in Jysk, or
Danish for that matter.


> > > Sanskrit and Gaulish both seem to have added the *-ko- suffix
> > > directly to stems; in Latin -ico- has been generalized, but the
> > > -i- originally belonged to /i/-stems. If PIE had no double
> > > stops, you need some mechanism to create all the examples in
> > > Latin and Greek. I prefer to think (very provisionally) that
> > > NWB produced geminates by regressive assimilation of inherited
> > > double stops. That could explain *pitt- 'fruit pit' from
> > > *(s)pikto- 'pecked away'(?), cf. G. <Specht> 'woodpecker', and
> > > a few others,
> >
> > The Svea dialects (around Stockholm) geminated spontaneously,
> > unlike the Göta ones (around Göteborg). Swedish mixed them up, as
> > a result we have:
> > Sw. mosse Da. mose "bog", but
> > Sw. påse, Da. pose "bag"
>
> I hope I can remember that example. It will probably prove useful.

Brøndum-Nielsen provides this list:
ON vita "know", Svea vetta, Göta ve:ta, Swedish ve:ta
ON vita "turn", Svea vetta, Göta ve:ta, Swedish vetta
ON vika "week", Svea vicka, vecka, Göta ve:ka, Swedish vecka
ON dropi "drop", Svea droppe, Göta dråpe, Swedish droppe
ON mosi "bog", Svea mosse, Göta må:se, Swedish mosse
ON posi "know; turn", Svea posse, Göta på:se, Swedish på:se
ON bora "drill", Svea borra, Göta bå:ra, Swedish borra

> > > perhaps even your Chatti as *kagh-to:s 'those joined together,
> > > federated', cf. L. <cohum> 'strap joining yoke to harness',
> > > Gaul. <caio> 'rampart, retaining wall'. But of course all NWB
> > > etymologies are highly speculative, rainy-day stuff.
> >
> > I mostly tend to believe in some connection with the *kant- "edge,
> > division" words.
>
> *kant- appears to be non-IE West Mediterranean borrowed into
> Celtic. If you assume loss of preconsonantal nasals in NWB, again
> you must throw away *pink- 'kleiner Finger', one of Kuhn's best
> examples.

I assume a Venetic family. Therefore I have a lot of leeway (and
corresponding less credibility) in proposing whole fameilies of words
with alternative sets of rules connecting them.

> > > Another possibility is that Italic *pekka: was originally a
> > > hypocoristic, 'dear little spot', formed regularly on a longer
> > > derivative of *pek^-, and there was no pre-Italic *pek^-ka:.
> >
> > Possible, but I still think there are so few words in Latin with
> > *- k- suffix, that they should be suspected of other origin.
> >
> > http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/48943
> > This is supposed to explain my view of spirantization of stops
> > before stops. The idea is that in such a 'low' word, scraps of
> > earlier stages would be sucked up by later arriving languages.
>
> The "mot populaire" again. But all IE languages are equally old,

Some died young.

> so why would the ones which happened to become extinct be more
> likely to retain these scraps?

The further you go back in the family, the weirder cousins will look.
Those without offspring you don't even have the chance of recognizing
from those.


Torsten