Re: Indo-European *es-
| From: | Jesse Bangs <jaspax@...> |
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| Date: | Wednesday, December 12, 2001, 9:10 |
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On Mon, 10 Dec 2001 09:36:53 -0500 "Johnson, Anna"
<AJohnson@...> writes:
> Muke wrote: "Well, for Indo-European languages, the main verb was
> *es-"
>
> ... actually, it was *Hs; the H surfaced as /e/ in late Common IE in
> certain
> clusters, but as [zero] in others, hence the distinction in, say,
> Latin
> between 'est' and 'sunt', both of which come from *Hs- plus ending.
According to Sihler's _New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin_, it
was actually *Hes-. I forget which laryngeal he has. Anyway, the form
*Hs- would only have occurred in zero-grade forms. The Latin forms in s-
are the end result of a long and complicated process of clitic
strengthening and weird analogies, and don't reflect a PIE *Hs-.
Jesse S. Bangs Pelíran
jaspax@ juno.com
"Skin and tragedy always attract a crowd."
--Pedro the Lion
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