Re: IE roots or Gmc innovations?

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 62766
Date: 2009-02-02

On 2009-02-02 12:30, the_black_sheep@... wrote:
>
>
> Dear all,
>
> I'm hoping you could help me with the following examples:
> PGmc *badjan > OE [bed] 'bed'
> PGmc *diuriz > OE [de:ore] 'dear'
> PGmc *gunthiz > OE [gu:th] 'battle'
> PGmc *lidan > OE [lid] 'ship'
> PGmc *swabjanan > OE [sweb:an] 'to put to sleep'
> PGmc *sweglo: > OE [swejel] 'swegel-horn=flute'
> (th=voiceless dental fricative)
> Are they Gmc innovations or do they come from PIE? If the latter, what
> are the IE roots?

Czesc, Gosiu!

The roots are IE in most of these:

*Baðja- is from *bHodH-i-o-; the root is *bHedH- 'dig, poke', cf. Lat.
fodio:, OCS bodoN (usually an o-grade present), MWel. bedd 'grave,
ditch' < PCelt. *bedo-.

*Gunþi- is from *gWHn.'-ti- '(act of) killing', from the widespread and
excellently attested root present *gWHen- 'strike, kill' (Hitt. kuenzi,
Ved. hánti, OCS z^enoN, Gk. tHeíno:, etc.).

*lið-a- is deverbal, from *leiþ-a- (OE li:þan 'go [by sea], sail').
There are external cognates in Tocharian and Iranian pointing to a PIE
*leit- 'go (away)'.

*swaB-ja- is a "regularised" variant of *swo:f-ja- (reflected as ON
sø:fa 'kill', cf. Lat. so:pio: 'put to sleep'). Both are causatives of
*swe(:)p- 'sleep' (see also PGmc. *swefnaz = Lat. somnus < *swép-no-).
The root seems to have been a "Narten present" (with an underlying long
vowel), hence its archaic causative was *swó:p-ie/o- beside analogical
*swop-éje/o-. Germanic shows reflexes of both.

As regards the remaining two, I have no opinion to offer off the top of
my head. *sweGlo: looks related to *swo:G-ja- 'to sound, make a noise'
(OE swe:gan, Goth. swo:gjan, also swo:gatjan 'sigh'), but I can't
identify any corresponding PIE root.

Piotr