Re: hunt

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Torsten" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:

>
> > > > And when making comparisons, beware of PIE root-extensions!
> > >
> > > I have always beworn of them, as a matter of fact I distinctly
> > > don't like them. I think they need to grow a semantics.
> >
> > *wei- 'apart', *weidH- 'to make apart, separate'
> > *gWem- 'to move toward, come', *gWeh2- 'to move away, go'
> > *sneh2- 'to float, swim', *sneh2gH- 'to dive'
> >
> > Plenty of work left, but not an insurmountable task.
> >
> In the minor Germanic languages (which is why most people are not aware of it) the present suffix is adds another syllable to the root. It is therefore tempting to eliminate the auslaut consonant and save yourself a syllable. However, this works only for the most commonly use verbs; the rest of the must preserve that consonant for recognizability.
>
> Examples
> Dutch pres. pl. slaa-n, elsewhere slag- "beat"
> Sw. pres. drar, obs. drager, Da. drager (obsolescent in Danish, replaced by trækk-er from Dutch, therefore rare)
> Sw. bryr, Da. bryder (replaced by Dutch/LG brækk-er)
>
> I suspect something similar took place in PIE. The 'extensions' would then be part of the original root, which lost its auslaut consonant in certain postions. Later, both forms were generalized.
>
> I also suspect that Germanic double forms *sta-/*stand- and *ga:-/gang- originated in this fashion.
>
> My Paradebeispiel is *yéu(x)-ti, *yung-ánti
> http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/46161
>
> In the list in
> http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/46264
> the 3sg forms should be the ones losing the 'extensions' (after spirantization).

I won't rain on your Paradebeispiel; it seems a reasonable enough way of explaining verb-classes with nasal infixation. But I don't see how a similar mechanism could account for the diversity of PIE root-extensions. To me they look like postfixes corresponding to old postpositions; this explains the difficulty in pinning down their original semantic force. Possibly *-m 'toward' is identical with the animate accusative marker.

DGK