Re: Another Indo-European question

> Date:         Fri, 29 Jun 2001 17:38:29 -0500
> From: Patrick Dunn <tb0pwd1@...>
>
> How did Proto Indo-European verbs form the infinitive?  It seems common
> that IE languages use the theme vowel and an alveolar of some kind; does
> that come from PIE, or does it have another source?
According to Beekes 1995 (again), they didn't. Or rather, there are no
forms reconstructible to that stage that is known to have had that
function.

There were lots of ways of forming verbal nouns that were used in
different case forms, mostly dative and accusative, like the Latin
supine still was. Infinitives developed as frozen case forms of these.

One example is the Latin passive infinitive, which seems to be the
dative of an (athematic) root noun formed on the verbal root.

The Germanic infinitive was formed in *-onom, i.e., the accusative of
a thematic verbal noun with (alveolar) stem extension *-on.

So, some cases support your impression, some don't.

Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dep) <thorinn@...> (Humour NOT marked)

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