Re: confession: roots

On Fri, May 04, 2001 at 02:39:01PM -0500, Patrick Dunn wrote:
> Okay, I confess, I *really* don't understand roots.  I understand that
> languages evolve from earlier languages, but my understanding of a root is
> that it is not a useable word, just a sliver of meaning, and how the hell
> did that ever evolve?  Or is a root just the earlier word stripped of its
> grammar?
>
> So, like, the roots for "philosopher" are philo- and soph-, but the words
> they come from are "philia" and "sophia."
I always labor under the assumption that at one time, such "roots" were
actually words to themselves, perhaps in an isolating language, and that over
time they merged with words around them. I know this is probably
linguistically naive, but I can't seem to shake myself of this idea. That's
why the Semitic roots fascinate and perplex me so much; the things that make
mere roots into words in those languages includes putting things *inside*
the roots, not before or after them, whereas from my stubbornly naive point
of view a root should be inviolate! I keep trying to convince myself to just
accept it and move on, because I really want to use Semitic-style root
structure in a conlang, but I'm still hung up on that. (I think it has
something to do with obsessive-compulsive disorder. I find it hard to let
other kinds of ideas go too.)

> Another question: roots, I know, in Hebrew consist only of consonents,
> usually three of them (hence, QTL contains ideas of killing, and depending
> upon vowels and stuff it changes its meaning).  What about other roots,
> though?  How do they derive words?  Is it always regular?  So the root
> "cook" means preparing food, and if we put the suffix -er on it, it
> indicates a person who makes food, but never a kind of duck.
In Hebrew and other Semitic langs, there are a number of different ways to
make a root into a word, with general guidelines as to what the resulting
word would mean, but it's by no means regular. I can't think of any examples
offhand...


--
Eric Christopherson / *Aiworegs Ghristobhorosyo

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