Re: Indo-European question

At 3:04 am +0200 17/6/01, Christophe Grandsire wrote:
>En réponse à Patrick Dunn <tb0pwd1@...>:
>
[snip]
>> If, say, the genitive post-position was -i, why is -ae the feminine
>> Latin
>> ending?  Wouldn't it be -i accross the board?
>>
>
>Well, there could be a sound change a-i > ae,
Not only could there be, there certainly was.  It's actually attested in
the written, literary language.  The earlier ending was -ai (dissylabic,
i.e. /ai:/), where -a- is the theme vowel of the first declension and -i:
is the genitive singular ending.  These forms are frequent in Lucretius,
and occasionally even in Vergil.

Ray.


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