Proto-Indo-European (PIE), the reconstructed proto-language for the Indo-European language family
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How does PIE *s- in *sriges- change to L. f- in frigus?
As shown in the Wiktionary:
frigus
From Proto-Indo-European *sriges-, *sriHges-.
But I can't find the clue to this sound change on Wikipedia, which concludes that PIE*bʰ, *dʰ, *gʷʰ will become ...
4
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Origin of actual order pattern in English/German
It is well-known, or better said, well-accepted, that the ancestral language Proto-Indo-European (PIE) was a OV language with a very limited (or nonexistent) use of subordinate clauses. In ...
7
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1answer
112 views
How does L. “quartus” come from L. “quattuor”, which has “quat” but “quart”?
quartus
From Latin quattuor ("four"), originally from Proto-Indo-European
quattuor
From Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwóres.
Cognates include Sanskrit चतुर् (catur), Old Armenian չորք ...
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Is there a prohibition on stems starting with /g/ in PIE?
Is there a law that prohibits PIE stems starting with what traditionally reconstructed as non-palatal /g/?
So far I encountered with only one stem that the sources consistently reconstruct with this ...
2
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1answer
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What prevents us from reconstructing PIE “u̯” by analogy with laryngeals?
The current laws for laryngeals presume the following reconstruction rules:
ē is reconstructed as eh1
ā is reconstructed as eh2
ō is reconstructed as eh3
word-initial e- is reconstructed as h1e
...
3
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1answer
114 views
What evidence supports labialized velars in PIE?
Traditional reconstruction gives the following velars in PIE:
*/ḱ/, */ǵ/, */ǵʰ/
*/k/, */g/, */gʰ/
*/kʷ/, */gʷ/, */gʷʰ/
I wonder what evidence is there to consider velars */kʷ/, */gʷ/, */gʷʰ/ ...
6
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3answers
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Grimm's law: what motivates stop -> fricative sound change?
I am trying to understand the sound change that brought PIE *dent- to P.Gmc. *tanth-. Grimm's law seems to be the culprit for the consonant changes:
Initial voiced stop /d/ devoiced to /t/
Terminal ...
4
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3answers
179 views
Are “fish” and “to swim” relative words?
When learning Thai, I was amazed how modern Thai word "fish" is similar to Slavic word "to swim"
Thai: ปลา [plaː] "fish"
Lao: ປາ [pa᷅ː]"fish"
Ukrainian: плавати [ˈpɫɑvɑtɪ] "to swim"
...
6
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0answers
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Etymology of the word “sport”
I wonder what is the etymology of the word sport.
Vasmer says that it is from disport "amusement", a contraction from Middle English disporten from Old French desporter "to take away", "to distract ...
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Gender of words for metals in PIE
I wonder why the word for bronze a̯ei̯os was animate-masculine gender while the word for silver a̯ergntom was inanimate-neuter. I wonder what gender had the word for gold.
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Word for road in PIE and overlaryngealism?
Lubotsky dictionary gives the word for "road" in PIE as
NOM *pónt-h₁-s
ACC *pont-éh₁-m
GEN *pnt-h₁-ós
This loos strange to me because I would expect a thematic vowel instead of the laryngeal. Can ...
5
votes
2answers
155 views
How does the initial consonant in “Jupiter” and “Zeus” come from the “d” in PIE “*dyew-”?
Jupiter, is from Proto-Indo-European *dyew- (“sky”) (whence also Latin diēs).
Cognate with Ancient Greek Ζεύς (Zeus), Hittite 𒅆𒍑 (sius), Sanskrit द्यु (dyú). The nominative Iuppiter comes ...
4
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1answer
107 views
Could the *-trom ending in PIE be a zero-grade from agent suffix *-ter-/-tor-?
Given the agent suffix -ter- (which exhibited e-grade when meaning a profession or purpose and o-grade when meaning the recent perpetrator), can -trom suffix also be a zero grade from this one plus ...
2
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0answers
68 views
What word is reconstructed for nephew in PIE, *ne-pot-s or *nepo-tēr?
In one source I saw a claim that the word is derived from ne- negation and a root pot- meaning "lord". This means the person was not adult yet.
Despite this, Starostin in his Starling gives the form ...
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106 views
PIE Aspect: (Im)perfective or (Non-)progressive?
According to Wikipedia Proto-Indo-European had four tense-aspects, the first being stative and the latter three being eventive: stative aspect, perfective aspect, and past and present tense of ...
5
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1answer
160 views
Is there a known rule of correspondence between Latin and Greek *p and *kʷ - in other languages?
It seems to me that some words that have -p- in stem in Latin have clearly reconstructible -ku̯- based on other Indo-European languages. Some examples include
*u̯lpes - *u̯lku̯os ("wolf")
*u̯esper - ...
2
votes
1answer
111 views
Would a Proto language be easy to learn?
Since English descends from Proto-Germanic, which descends from PIE, would either of those two languages be relatively easy to learn (compared to, say, Japanese), or has the language changed too much ...
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How is the word for “son” reconstructed in PIE?
How is son reconstructed in PIE, soŭnus or seŭnus?
Starostin gives contradictory accounts: in Indo-European etymology page he gives the first variant, but on a page for Eurasiatic etymology he gives ...
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h₂ou̯is or h₃eu̯is
I wonder which variant of reconstruction of this word, meaning "sheep" in PIE is the correct.
Beekes gives *h₃eu̯is, Fortson gives *h₂ou̯is. Both are respected scholars, Fortson's source is the ...
8
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3answers
234 views
PIE -enk reflexes in Modern English
I recently found out the origin of the verb 'bring' as being derived from bher- (carry) and enk- (to go to) and how they fused together and came into Germanic as *bhrengk- then coming down into ...
6
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214 views
Agglutination in Proto-Indo-European
Based on numerous sources, it seems clear that Proto-Indo-European was
Productively agglutinative with non-root morphemes (and perhaps some specific roots that are also able to act like bound ...
3
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1answer
95 views
What is the evidence for laryngeal in *méh₂tēr?
Wikitionary shows a PIE word *méh₂tēr but I never seen this word spelled with a laryngeal. There was a long vowel there but how is it correct to analyze it to be *-eh₂- rather than just *ā?
3
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1answer
146 views
Origin of *dhvor-
Formerly as I remember I saw somewhere *dhvor- (door, gate, yard, court) connected with the root *vert- (turn) in PIE. This is quite realistic and can be supported with similar Russian words створка ...
3
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1answer
451 views
How it happened that evolution of “mater” and “pater” is different despite their similar origin?
With an addition of PIE relatives suffix *-ter-, Eurasiatic *ama, *apa became Old PIE *mā-ter-s, *pa-ter-s (the final -s was later lost in late PIE)
But there is a difference: in Old PIE *māters the ...
5
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1answer
187 views
What is the origin of feminine ending *-ia in PIE?
I have seen two versions:
a) *-ia ending actually derived from the collective number form, which also ends in *-ia. So the collective number first started to represent abstract things (compare Latin ...
8
votes
3answers
491 views
What are the reasons to count Armenian as an Indo-European language?
Often I encounter arguments that Armenian is in fact not an Indo-European language. The claims assert that the regular correspondences between Armenian and PIE are too unrealistic, too rare and too ...
14
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What is the relationship between the PIE roots *dekṃ and *kṃtóm?
It seems that there is a consensus that the PIE roots for ten and hundred are, respectively, *dekṃ and *kṃtóm. There also seems to be a consensus that *kṃtóm is a shortened version of *dekṃtóm. These ...
