Metathesis in PIE

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Constructed Languages List [mailto:CONLANG@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU]On
> Behalf Of Grandsire, C.A.
> Sent: Thursday, October 21, 1999 3:59 AM
> To: Multiple recipients of list CONLANG
> Subject: Re: irregular conlangs
> Nik Taylor wrote:
> >
> > So, they come from different IE roots.  Nevertheless, *werg- and *wreg-
> > are quite similar.  One wonders if one was originally a variant of the
> > other?  To drive and to work are similar enough meanings ...
>         According to the 1-vowel theory, triconsonnantal roots in
> PIE come from
> biconsonnanntal roots added with a suffix, the root and the suffix
> having both a variable vowel. So *werg- and *wreg- would come from
> **w.r-.g, with the dot being e, o or the zero-vowel, and *werg- would
> come from this radical with e-degree on the root and zero-degree on the
> suffix, whereas *wreg- would come from the same, but with zero-degree on
> the root and e-degree on the suffix. As far as I know, there are many
> such pairs in PIE, as it is reconstructed at least. Now, let's try and
> find a meaning for this root **w.r and the suffix **-.g... <GGG>
On the other hand, it could be explained by simple metathesis. There are
other roots which seem to vary because of metathesis, e.g. *prek-/*perk,
*derk/*drek.