Questions tagged [proto-indo-european]
Proto-Indo-European (PIE), the reconstructed proto-language for the Indo-European language family
29
questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
16
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0answers
317 views
What are the different schools of PIE reconstruction?
I have read some works on Proto-Indo-European which mention different schools that advocate for different paradigms of reconstruction, such as the Leiden and the Erlangen schools. I'd like to know if ...
11
votes
1answer
246 views
Why is reconstructed PIE so typologically unusual?
I'm probably not the first to notice that a large number of features of reconstruct Proto-Indo-European are typological irregularities. The most famous of these probably being the voiceless/voiced/...
7
votes
1answer
1k 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 ...
4
votes
0answers
203 views
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 ...
4
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0answers
499 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 ...
4
votes
1answer
212 views
Loans in Indo-Aryan languages indicating possible migration routes
I am aware of only few Uralic loans into Indo-Aryan languages that show migrations from Eurasia to India, Iran etc. What are typical examples of loan words that are unquestionably a result of a ...
3
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0answers
82 views
Sound laws in Balto-Slavic and Slavic changes
What are the regular sound laws that explain the modern form of the words in baltic and slavic languages?
I am aware of the centum/satem separation, which already helps to identify a lot of cognates ...
3
votes
0answers
117 views
PIE root *trep-: 'trepidation' vs 'trope'
[Etymonline for trepidation (n.) :]
... from PIE * trep- (1) "to shake, tremble" ... , related to * trem- (see tremble (v.)).
[Etymonline for trope (n.) :]
... from PIE * trep- (2) "to ...
3
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0answers
182 views
hāouĢÆis or hāeuĢÆis
I wonder which variant of reconstruction of this word, meaning "sheep" in PIE is the correct.
Beekes gives *hāeuĢÆis, Fortson gives *hāouĢÆis. Both are respected scholars, Fortson's source is the later....
2
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0answers
123 views
How could Proto-Indo-European not get dissolved into creoles during the Indo-European expansion?
First of all, I must say that I realise that this is not exactly a linguistics question so much as it is an anthropological, sociological, or historical question, but I suspect this might be the best ...
2
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0answers
66 views
Did the word circle come from the PIE word *kr-kr, which was said to be the Proto-Indo-European word for circular?
When I was reading on Wiktionary, I found something interesting. The word for circle was traced back to a Greek word which was said to be "of Pre-Greek origin". However, I read about the word carcer, ...
2
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0answers
232 views
The origin of “ba” particle
In French, Italian there is a particle ba(h) which is used for exclamation of contempt, excitement, surprise etc. There's pretty similar particle Õ¢Õ” in Armenian which is used for expressing amusent as ...
2
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0answers
331 views
what evidence suggests that PIE was a tone language?
I have heard this claim stated with confidence, but it's difficult to see how it could be deduced from traditional reconstruction. Same question for ancient Greek.
2
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0answers
195 views
Is PIE “*wank-” the ultimate root of E “wankle”?
wankle
From Middle English wankel, from Old English wancol (āunstable, unsteady, tottering, vacillating, weakā), from Proto-Germanic *wankulaz (āunsteady, waveringā), from Proto-Indo-European *...
2
votes
1answer
95 views
The impact on the deciphering of the Carian language on proto-Anatolian
Despite written in an alphabetic script, the Carian language resisted decipherment for a long time and we can only read it for about three decades now. The Carian language turned out to be a member of ...
2
votes
1answer
318 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 ŃŃŠ²Š¾ŃŠŗŠ° (...
1
vote
1answer
106 views
Etymology of latin suffix -idus
What is the (probably Indo-European) origin of the latin suffix -idus, as in "acidus"? Are there any known cognates?
1
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0answers
109 views
Are Russian words ŠæŃŃŃ (five), ŠæŃŃŃŃ (fist), ŠæŃŃŠŗŠ° (heel) related? What about English “fist”?
I wonder whether the PIE word for five in fact meant "fist", in other words, when people counted, they closed their fingers and when they obtained the closed fist, it was "five"?
...
1
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0answers
87 views
What are the descendants of the PIE suffix “-nĢ„kŹ·os” in the Czech language if there are any?
Me and my friend would like to know whether there is any PIE suffix "-nĢ„kŹ·os" descendats in the czech language, we feel like "-uha" in "ostruha" could be it, in other ...
1
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0answers
92 views
What's with an j/w alternation in some PIE pronouns?
There's a seeming alternation between *j (IEist notation *y) and *w in the PIE 2nd person pronoun (such as between *tewe and *toy) and in the reflexive pronoun (such as between *sewe and *soy). What's ...
1
vote
1answer
198 views
Welcome and BienVenidos
In English and Spanish, the words for welcome have an uncanny relation: the translation is almost completely (if not completely) literal.Bien means well and venidos means come/came in the plural or ...
1
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0answers
284 views
What's the function of the PIE suffix *-lo-?
I've seen it used sometimes, what was its purpose? Was it used to make adjectives describing relations to nouns as in Latin (where it transformed into -Älis, which works that way), or was it different?...
1
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0answers
180 views
Are these Kazakh words considered borrowings (from Russian?) or onomatopoieias?
These three words are very similar in English, Russian and Kazakh. At least the Russian set is considered inherited from PIE.
English - Russian - Kazakh
crush - ŠŗŃŃŃŠøŃŃ (krushitŃ) - ŅŃŃŃ (qyrsh)
...
1
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0answers
74 views
Could “scratch” be derived from the same PIE source as “card” and “chart”?
I found the following entries on Wiktionary (emphasis mine):
carte
French
noun
card
chart; map
menu
card
English
From Middle English carde (āplaying cardā), from Old French carte, from Latin charta, ...
0
votes
0answers
19 views
Is Proto-Uralic piÅŠ· “hand, palm” related to PIE pnĢ„kŹ·stis “fist”, pénkŹ·e “five”?
There was Proto-Uralic piÅŠ· "hand, palm": https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pivo#Etymology_2
I wonder whether it was related to the PIE words.
0
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0answers
75 views
Is Geoffrey cognate with these words?
I have an interesting question about a name that I looked up: Geoffrey. I saw that it is from Middle English, and is a compound name derived from the Germanic words *gautaz and *frithuz. Both of these ...
0
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0answers
121 views
Besides Proto-Indo-European, does any language have separate words for “one alone” and “one united”?
In PIE, eĢÆoinos meant "one alone", "one separated", it has the same root as in the word for "goes", eĢÆeiti. Semantically it meant the one that went away.
At the same time, som meant "one united", "...
0
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0answers
135 views
What did the PIE prefix *kom- signify in
cumber | Origin and meaning of cumber by Online Etymology Dictionary
c. 1300, cumbren, combren, "to overthrow, destroy, probably a shortening of Ā acombren "obstructing progress,"
from Old French ...
-2
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0answers
16 views
What's the reconstruction of the word for fire in proto-Australian?
The word for fire in some modern Australian languages:
Tiwi yikwani
Djinang junggi
Maung yungku
Walmajarri yakun
This is strikingly similar to that in PIE:
PIE hā...
