-zk is reflexive, even I can see that Grace, despite the mess I made of my grammar.
 I think you make an excellent point - middle voice - not that I can see what it stands for, most certainly not that it appears in English IMO I am off to look into my books on Linguistics - find anything - let you know
 
 ----There is a word for gelding in ON so it is probable that the band of horses
brought in with Freyfaxi included some of them so the translation "mares-
 
The main purpose for Gelding is to turn a stallion into a Riding Horse, this has been done since time immemorial and the main reason for it being done today AIUI is for this reason it seems to take away a lot of their "zip-zam-and-zowie"  and to make them more tractable. 
 
In this day and age this is now practised against Dogs to control breeding, where dogs are allowed to be unsupervised, also a remedy against a Dog's vicious nature - so be that he has a vicious nature.
 
One would have thought that if there were a large herd then a couple of stallions might be sufficient, one imagines such a thing being prevalent on a large farm - ranch perhaps -  Aye Grace - Just a thought
Kveðja
Patricia
 
 
 
 
 
 
Original Message -----
From: Fred and Grace Hatton
To: norse_course@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, March 12, 2006 8:47 PM
Subject: [norse_course] býzk and horses

Not to quibble, but how does one figure out that býzk doesn't come from búa
since it does exist in the form bý?  The zk suffix is reflexive, right?

I still don't get what the middle voice is.  Does it exist in any fashion in
English?  I understand what the passive voice is and also what reflexives
are, but the middle voice doesn't seem to penetrate.

There is a word for gelding in ON so it is probable that the band of horses
brought in with Freyfaxi included some of them so the translation "mares"
might not be as good as "horses.'  There wouldn't be any point in gelding a
horse if it weren't going to be kept around for a few years.  Unless maybe
the geldings were kept for riding and work around the place and the mares
just ran loose most of the time. Just a thought.
Grace

Fred and Grace Hatton
Hawley Pa