From: Joao S. Lopes
Message: 65973
Date: 2010-03-13
--- In cybalist@... s.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...> wrote:
>
> On 2010-03-13 00:47, Joao S. Lopes wrote:
> >
> >
> > Probably by analogy to -us of Nominative.
> >
> > *wenos gen *wenesos, adj. *wenestos, *wenesnos cf. greek erebos,
> > erebeinos (<*h1regWes- no)
>
> As a matter of fact, Jens Rasmussen speculates that *-esto- itself is
> analogical as well, and that the original adjectival derivatives of
> es-stem nouns ended in *-eto- (parallelling *s ~ *t alternations found
> elsewhere). Cf. Skt. namas- 'homage' vs. Gaul. nemeton 'holy place'
> (*nem-es-, adj. nem-et-o-). If so, an older PIE *wenh1-et-o- was
> replaced by "dialectal" *wenh1-es-to- (because of *wenh1-es-), and of
> course in the immediate ancestor of Latin *wenesto- was influenced by
> the vocalism of *wenos, yielding *wenosto-.
If memory serves, the Gaulish word is <neme:ton>, since it (or a compound) is known from a text in the Greek alphabet. The suffix is thus identical to the Latin collective <-e:tum>, and should not be used for speculation of this sort. Since Celtic replaced *nebH- with *nem- (by tabuistic substitution? ), it is not clear which root belongs to <neme:ton> anyway.
Regarding the Latin confusion of stems, we have some /us/-stem neuters as well as the more common /es/-stems. Pokorny regards OHG <Sigur-ma:r> as reflecting a neuter *seg^H-us- parallel to the more common *seg^H-es-. Perhaps Lat. <venus>, <venustus> reflect an original nt. *wenh1-us-, with the gen. <veneris> analogical after regular /es/-stems with /os/ in the nom./acc. sg., like <genus>, <generis>.
I regard <honor> as reflecting an OL nt. *henos, *henesis, from IE *g^Hen-es-; more in a few days.
DGK