Re: Negation

----- Original Message -----
From: "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2008 9:13 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Negation


>
> On 2008-12-03 12:32, Arnaud Fournet wrote:
>
>> This presupposes that the longest form is the oldest. There is no
>> clear proof for that. It seems Mycenean already had short forms 'ou'.
>> Long forms could also result from expansion of the short one.
>
> True, but other things being equal words get shorter and shorter rather
> than longer and longer in the course of time, like a(u)gustus > Fr. /u/.
=========
Well,
If this principle were true, we'd be left with only short words like /u/
after 200 000 years.
but as Latin shows, short roots like can- have lengthened into canta- 'sing'
And many words of "popular" Latin are prefixed by com- and diversely
suffixed.
That kind of argument that "decay rules" is a bit melancholically
neo-grammarian.
It's a bit short to prove that ou is not the original form.
A.
=========

> The form <ouk(H)í> is orthotone, while <ou> is a conditioned
> (preconsonantal) sandhi variant of <ouk>. The distribution of proclitic
> <ou>, <ouk> and <oukH> is predictable, and there are good reasons to
> assume that <ouk> is the basic form from which the other two are derived.
>
========
Sorry,
but I've not fully grasped what these "good reasons" are !?
Can you think of another word that displays that kind of k/kh alternation ?

A.

> The details can be debated. I personally find *h2oju a little out of
> place here if the interptetation is really 'in one's life'. I would
> expect a locative, whereas *h2oju is clearly nom./acc. (presumably acc.,
> to be precise). Perhaps *ne h2oju kWid should rather be understood,
> roughly, as '(for) no lifetime no-matter -how-long' (i.e., never in the
> foreseeable future). Anyway, *h2oju-kWid explains also Arm. oc^' and
> Alb. s 'not', and an exact parallel (pointed out by Cowgill) is provided
> by OIc. eigi 'not' = ei ~ ey 'always' (= Goth aiw, OE a:, cognate to
> *h2oju-) + -gi- 'at all' (which may well reflect *kWi-). If Cowgill's
> etymology is regarded as brilliant, it's because it reaches way beyond
> Greek.
>
> Piotr
>
===========
If one posits a separate root meaning "ever",
there is little problem.
Sounds like "not ever indeed"
A.