Re: Questions on Proto-Indo-European

----- Original Message -----
From: "Quentin Read" <quonton79@...>


> I have recently gotten a book on PIE Roots (The Roots
> of English, by David Claiborne) serendipitously from a
> used bookstore - very interesting.  But anyway, I have
> a few questions about it.
>
> First of all, how where the consonants bh, dh, and gh
> actually pronounced?  I can't really visualize it (or
> audio-lize it).
Well, these are reconstructed, of course, and used to explain how they
developed into fricatives in some languages; I've always imagined the first
one to be a bilabial semi-fricative.  Dh is harder for me.  I imagine a
dental semi-fricative, and the last a velar semi-fricative.

> Second, where can I find a complete list of PIE roots,
> not just those that English has taken a word from?
There is a huge book by J. Pokorny called Indo-Germanisches etymologisches
Wo"rterbuch that any university library worth its salt should have in its
reference section.  I think there is an English translation of it; maybe
not.  Funny how I can't remember, even though it's sitting on my shelf at
school.  Even better, though, there's the Leiden University IED project on
line at
                http://iiasnt.leidenuniv.nl/ied/

where, if you go to the frames section, it will allow you to search for a
word or a root from Pokorny, and then Frisk's Greek word origins, Vasmer's
Slavic origins, Albanian, Baltic, Tocharian, Frisian, and other language
origins.  I just looked at it, and I don't know how useful it would be for
you since it asks you to put in a word or word root and it will search for
you.  This seems to require your knowing the Frisian, Albanian, Baltic,
Tocharian or whatever word first of all.  No!  Wait!  Actually this is
pretty cool.  You go to the Pokorny, you select English, put in the word
"heart" in the English line, hit browse, and it comes back with: ke^red,
ke^rd- etc.

This might be useful to you.  And to me!

> I am trying to make some new branches of the IE family
> and it would be biased toward English to only use
> those roots.  So far any source I have found including
> the section in the back of the American HEritage
> Dictionary have only English roots.
Yes, this has always been the problem for me.

>  I've spent the
> last few English classes using the list of roots to
> create a new language, Quaroeth.
Sounds wonderful!

> And finally has anyone made a .lex file of PIE roots
> yet?  If not I will have to myself.
See the on-line version.

> As a parting shot a pithy Quaroeth maxim shamelessly
> plagiarized from english:
>
> Miquotu quiriiri um buyardotum iholual oak.
>
> Grass   greener  in side       other   is.
>
> -Penkwe Reudh
> (the roots upon which my name is based)
Splendid!  Keep at it!


Sally Caves
scaves@frontiernet.net
Eskkoat ol ai sendran, rohsan nuehra celyil takrem bomai nakuo.
"My shadow follows me, putting strange, new roses into the world."