Re: ipse (was: No pronoun, no article)

On Thursday, October 23, 2003, at 04:10 , Nik Taylor wrote:

> Ray Brown wrote:
>> In Classical Latin -met exists as a pronominal _suffix_ intensifier,
>> e.g. egomet (I myself), mihimet (to me, myself)
>> Also attested are: memet, nosmet, nobismet, tutemet, tibimet, vosmet.
>> We even find 'meamet' where it's suffixed to a possessive adjective.
>>
>> One suspects that in the spoken language 'met' had a more independent
>> existence before ending up _prefixed_ to *issimus.
>
> I don't know much about Vulgar Latin, so I might be completely out in
> left field, but is it possible that that was simply a reanalysis?  E.g.,
> *mihimet issimus -> *mihi metissimus?
Well, *mimet issimo --> *mi metissimo   :)

But, yes, thanks - that's so obvious, I overlooked it.  I think you are
certainly correct.
*nosmet issimos --> *nos metissimos
etc.

Then *metissim- takes on a life of its own, surviving in its modern guises
till the present day.

Ray
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