Questions tagged [proto-indo-european]
Proto-Indo-European (PIE), the reconstructed proto-language for the Indo-European language family
229
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What happened to “accented velars” in Anatolian?
One of the oldest splits within Indo-European was between the Centum and Satem languages; they differ in what they did to the "accented velar" phonemes (like *ḱ and *ǵ).
However, if I understand ...
0
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2answers
191 views
Are there any Latin and (ancient) Hebrew words with common origins?
More generally, is there any compelling evidence for any common roots between early Indo-European and Afro-Asiatic languages? There are almost necessarily some words that are not too dissimilar ...
2
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1answer
94 views
Derivation of Greek οὐρά (backside) from PIE *h₁ers (flow)
I'm trying to understand how the Greek word for backside/rear could be derived from the PIE word for 'to flow'. There is a Sanskrit word arsati which means 'to pierce', so the meaning of the PIE root ...
0
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2answers
127 views
What would the linguistic ramifications be of Proto-Indo-European texts being found? [closed]
The oldest known Indo-European texts are (in time order) the Sanskrit, Hittite, and possibly Linear A (and other) languages. Linguists have reconstructed Proto-Indo-European. However, let's say that a ...
5
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1answer
492 views
How might one swear in Proto-Indo-European?
Proto-Indo-European is an interesting topic. I'm fascinated by how it spread. But, I wonder how to use curse words. These words, like others, will probably be reconstructed from other languages: Latin,...
2
votes
1answer
116 views
Why are PIE C+glide clusters so rare?
I noticed that *Cj/*Cy (depending on if one uses IPA or IEist notation) and *Cw sequences are rare in PIE (with most being the result of schwebeablaut or regular ablaut). Among sequences that aren't ...
6
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2answers
217 views
What was the original Germanic agent suffix before Proto-Germanic speakers borrowed -er from Latin speakers?
as you can see from the title I would like to know what was the original Germanic agent suffix before Proto-Germanic speakers borrowed -er from Latin speakers. All I know is -a in Old English and I ...
13
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3answers
480 views
What are known PIE stock phrases?
In the wikipedia page for Proto-Indo-European, it said that Proto-Indo-Europeans had "oral heroic poetry or song lyrics that used stock phrases such as imperishable fame and wine-dark sea". What are ...
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139 views
An idea to phonetically relate Indo-European first-person singular personal pronouns [closed]
The chart shows what i guess about the succession using probable changes like e>ye or s>sh>ch or a>ya
PS: I'm not a linguist, just a curious language learner
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2answers
213 views
What if Proto-Indo-European documents written in a cuneiform like script were found? [closed]
Proto indo european (aka PIE) is an unrecorded (as far as we know) language that was possibly spoken in southern Russia or Ukraine. Let’s suppose that there was a building underground sealed with ...
8
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2answers
171 views
Statistical tests of PIE laryngeal theory
The fashionable theory of PIE laryngeals offers plausible explanations for many phenomena, but plausibility is not proof. Are any implications of the postulated laryngeals amenable to statistical ...
1
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1answer
407 views
Pre-Greek θάλασσα “thalassa” and Turkish talaz
Talaz is a word that means "wave, tornado" in Turkish dialects. dalga means "wave" in Turkish. You can use the following two links to look up the word's attestations throughout history:
https://www....
2
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1answer
119 views
Reference Request: connection between PIE \*leg- and \*les
There's an obvious similarity between the Proto-Indo-European reconstructed roots *leg- and *les-, both "to collect, gather", reflected in logos, Latin lego and German lesen respectively. I have not ...
1
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1answer
153 views
What semantic notions underlie PIE *meh₂d- ('wet') and Proto-Germanic *matōną, *matjaną (“to feed, eat”)?
I was reading the etymology of amadouer when I lighted on these attested morphemes:
Etymology
From Middle French amadouer (“to coax, lure”), from a- + *madouer (“to lure, give food to”), from ...
1
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1answer
82 views
The Methatesis in “scope” vs “to show”
I would like to hear some ideas that can explain Greek *σκέπτομαι, σκοπός "watcher, look-out, spy, mark, goal"
from Proto-Indo-European *skep-ye-, from a metathesis of *speḱ-.
Cognate to ...
4
votes
1answer
118 views
How did vowel a in L. maneō “to remain” come from PIE *mn-eh₁- “to remain” < PIE *men- “to stay, stand still”?
AHD-IER (Watkins, 2011) P97 gives PIE *man-e- for L. maneō:
Variant suffixed (stative) form
*man-e-. MANOR, MANSE, MANSION, MENAGE; IMMANENT, PERMANENT, REMAIN, from Latin manere, to remain.
...
2
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3answers
255 views
good references for old indo-European languages
what enjoy the most is to trace back the words right to their origin.
i had little study on Mazandarani(tabari\tapuri) dialect spoken is Mazandaran province of Iran. traced back some words to their ...
4
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1answer
803 views
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) words with IPA
Are there any resources that can show IPA pronounciation for each PIE word? Either with laryngeals or without laryngeals?
Wikitionary gives me only small list Category:Proto-Indo-European terms with ...
0
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2answers
333 views
If *h1 were a glottal stop, and virtually all German word initial vowels have an implicit glottal stop
If *h1 were a glottal stop, and virtually all German word initial vowels have implicit glottal stop then would the claim about regular laryngeal loss have to be revised?
There's a rather recent ...
1
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1answer
82 views
Etymological connection between “uncus” and “unguis”
The Latin words uncus (hook) and unguis (claw, fingernail) appear very phonologically similar to me, and semantically I can see why 'hook' and 'claw' could derive from the same source.
However, ...
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5answers
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What's weird about Proto-Indo-European Stops?
I was reading Wikipedia, and it maintains that it's unusual for a language to have a voiceless-voiced-breathy distinction (without a voiceless aspirated), but that the Sanskrit 4-way distinction is ...
1
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1answer
327 views
Is there any relationship between the Hungarian long s sound and the long s in some European languages?
This History SE question (with some references), which enquires about when the f (actually an ſ) became an s and why in English specifically, prompted me to wonder if there was any relationship with ...
2
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1answer
56 views
Is there any commentary on the etymology of the Tocharian word empreṃ?
The Tocharian word empreṃ 'truth' is often marked as being of unknown etymology. I cannot find a lot of commentary on it except from that it could be a middle Iranian word meaning 'confidence'.
So, ...
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1answer
221 views
PIE Etymology of Ger *heute* “today” vs Lt *hodie*, Sanskr *adja* etc
This question about Top of the morning got me thinking.
Most west european words for today are akin, said to be influenced by Latin hodie1. But Sanskrit adja, from * PIE *h₁e-dy-és, *h₁é (“this”, and ...
3
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1answer
201 views
Could someone illuminate for me how PGmc *suma and *sama(n) were derived?
Ie, I am assuming that they are both ultimately deriviative of PIE *sem-/*som-.
So, how are they derived from this, in terms of morphemes, and their meanings?
I have skimmed through both Ringe and ...
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1answer
561 views
Latin “niger” from *negʷ-?
Could Latin niger "black", of uncertain origin, come from *negʷ- "bare, naked"?
For an analogy, compare black, blank, Spanish blanco "white, argent", and their roots PGem *blakaz "burnt", PGem *...
3
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2answers
361 views
Why does Sankr. नक्ति (nákti) not show Satemization
Did Sanskrit नक्ति (nákti) "night", PIE *nókʷts, not participate in the kentum-satem split? Why? Is it a loan? There are at least two synonyms, if that makes any difference.
I have no actual reason ...
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1answer
895 views
How different were proto Italic and proto Celtic?
The idea of mutual intelligibility is interesting, yet due to how the Urnfield culture that spoke proto Celtic just north of the Italian peninsula (and inside modern Bologna, Venice, and Milan) how ...
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1answer
401 views
Noun inflection in which IE language is close to PIE noun inflection?
Which modern IE language is most conservative in noun inflection and in this aspect is most similar language to PIE?
2
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1answer
313 views
Are the English word “charm” and Russian word “чары” etymologically related?
Do "charm" and "чары" share a common etymological root?
(NB: "чары" is a Russian plural noun meaning "magic" or "charm." Also note that the English noun "charms" has historically meant magic or ...
3
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2answers
219 views
Germanic Philology: “translate” a word from indoeuropean language to the germanic language
I'm having a philology test next week. One of the questions will be to "translate" an indoeuropean word into a germanic word, like: i.e. Agros -> germanic Akraz (i.e. "g" --> germ. "k" for Grimm's Law,...
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2answers
319 views
PIE *kom 'with, side by side' or PIE *ḱóm?
wiktionary:
Proto-Indo-European/ḱóm -
Etymology
Perhaps from *ḱe.
Adverb
*ḱóm
beside, near, by, with
AHD-IER:
kom Beside, near, by, with
Is the initial consonant a plain k or not?
4
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2answers
99 views
How did Gk. ταινία “band, ribbon” come from PIE *tn̥-yā- < *ten- “to stretch”?
AHD-IER (Watkin, 2011) P93 gives PIE *tn̥-yā- for Gk. ταινία:
Suffixed zero-grade form *tn̥-yā‑. taenia; polytene, from Greek tainiā, band, ribbon.
while EDG (Robert Beekes, 2010) P1444:
...
2
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3answers
270 views
Gold in French, light in Hebrew
I am fascinated by questions of linguistic relation between Hebrew and the Romance Languages, but I feel here I may have stumbled on a false connection and would like to be properly put in my place.
...
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2answers
443 views
What is the oldest language that we know enough about to construct a plausible sentence in it?
One exciting way to track the evolution of our understanding of Proto-Indo-European is to look at the different versions of Schleicher's fable from different years. The more time we spend studying the ...
6
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2answers
508 views
Did modern Farsi lose its casual word for yes?
Hobby linguistic learner here.
Farsi naturally shares a lot of simple words with other Indo-European languages:
German for [daughter]: "Tochter" / "doxtar" (دختر)
English for [bad]: "bad"/"bad" (بد)
...
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1answer
218 views
Does Sanskrit निस् • (nis) “out, forth, away” come from PIE *ni- “in; down?” with meaning shift from “in” to “out”?
निस्·nis "out, forth, away" > nirvana "to blow out, extinguish; out of breath?"
नि·ni "down, back, in, into" < PIE *h₁én "in; down?"
My question is ...
3
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3answers
292 views
Where do personal pronouns come from?
Studying some languages I noticed that many European languages have a first, second and third person.
In a philosophical sense, I was wondering how it shapes reality, but that's off topic here. What ...
2
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1answer
155 views
The origins of PIE *-nt- and *-to-
I have learned that English present participle suffix -ing and past participle suffix -ed came from PIE *-nt- and *-to- respectively. I have two questions about them.
(1)Were these also used to form ...
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4answers
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Why are the reconstructed forms of PIE root in Etymonline and Wiktionary different?
I found PIE roots described in Etymonline (or American Heritage Dictionary) and Wiktionary are quite different. For examples:
agō: *ag- (Etymonline),
*h₂eǵ- (Wiktionary)
laxō: *sleg- (...
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3answers
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What is the meaning of the number 2 in Proto-Indo European reconstructions? e.g. As in *tewtéh₂, meaning “people” or “tribe”
I am a writer doing some research into ancient languages for a story I am creating. Despite having done some formal and informal study on linguistics (I am familiar with a phonetic chart) and informal ...
3
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1answer
232 views
Can these new etymological pairs of PIE roots be true?
I find a paper containing new lists of cognates on PIE root level, and don't know such phenomena or rules are convincing or not, the list follows below:
1. The voiceless stop vs. voiced aspirated ...
1
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1answer
75 views
Why was the English 'so' imputed to the PIE *se-?
Etymonline states 'so' to originate:
from PIE reflexive pronominal stem *swo- "so" [...], derivative of *s(w)e-, pronoun of the third person and reflexive (see idiom).
What semantic ...
4
votes
2answers
322 views
Etymology of the words ''Wave''
Do the words Wave(English) Welle(German) Vague(French) have the same Etymology as Val(Serbo-Croatian,Slovenian),Vlna(Czech,Slovakian),BолнаVolna.
All these words mean the same thing-Wave. but I ...
6
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1answer
180 views
What is the relation of PIE *wers (“to confuse, mix up; to beat, thresh, grind”), *wert (“to turn, to rotate”), and *werb (“to bend, to turn”)?
From *wers we get English war, worse, worst.
From *wert we get English versus, verse, version, vertex, vortex, vertical, revert, invert, divert,..., worth, -ward, weird.
From *werb/p we get ...
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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, e̯oinos meant "one alone", "one separated", it has the same root as in the word for "goes", e̯eiti. Semantically it meant the one that went away.
At the same time, som meant "one united", "...
5
votes
2answers
562 views
Is English “lake” Derived from Latin, or is it Indo-European?
I'm having a bit of trouble figuring this one out.
Lake, meaning "A large, landlocked stretch of water." seems to have some confusion in the Wiktionary pages. I've looked in the American Heritage ...
16
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0answers
313 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 ...
2
votes
1answer
104 views
is there “i” suffix that makes verb from noun, in latin or its ancestors? etymology of tio(n) suffix [closed]
Wiktionary says on PIE -h₃onh₂-:
Descendants
Italic:
...
Latin: -iō (from *-i-h₃onh₂-) (e.g. legiō (“group of selected people”))
Latin: -ō (e.g. Nāsō (“having a conspicuous nose”), poss. ...
8
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1answer
326 views
Are the inflectional endings in English known to have evolved from separate words or do they go too far back into PIE to know?
English isn't a highly inflected language, but it did evolve from one and still has at least: -s, -es; -ed, -ing; -er, -est; for nouns, verbs, and adjectives.
Do we know if these all evolved from ...
