Re: Love Those Double Vowels (was: Diving In...)

From: "Nik Taylor" <fortytwo@...>
> Muke Tever wrote:
> > The problem I understand exists with the pair "thy/thigh" is that it occurs
> > across a morpheme boundary... The root is just [D] {th-} "second person
singular
> > archaic"
>
> I disagree.  There is no morphemic boundary there.  -y is not an ending
> meaning "possesssive"!
It is, though, even though we only have it in two English words, both of them
pronouns that go the same way:

        m.e    m.y   m.ine
       th.ee  th.y  th.ine

If I understand correctly, "my" and "thy" are reduced forms of "mine" and
"thine", where the -[n] is an adjectival ending (true, not necessarily
"possessive").

    IE *mei-no-    > PGerm *mi:na-  > OE *mi:n  > ModE mine/my
    IE *t(w)ei-no- > PGerm *thi:na- > OE *thi:n > ModE thine/thy

Apparently this is related to the ending "-en" as forms English words like
"taken", "brazen", "laden" (but not Laden, of course).


    *Muke!

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