Questions tagged [proto-indo-european]
Proto-Indo-European (PIE), the reconstructed proto-language for the Indo-European language family
233
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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
687 views
What caused some IE languages to have consonant inventory sizes different from PIE?
The WALS chapter on consonant inventories shows that the distribution of inventory sizes across languages follows a normal curve, with average size inventories (22 ± 3 consonants) being the most ...
3
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3answers
122 views
Are proto-languages necessary to divide languages within a family into groups?
For example, Indo-European family is divided into groups, such as Slavic, Romance, Germanic, etc. Some of these groups can also be divided, but let`s just assume, that there is no further division. ...
3
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3answers
298 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 ...
3
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2answers
487 views
Does an -es suffix for plurality have Proto-Indo-European roots?
I'm researching proto-Indo-European, and have seen a few remarks which imply that an -es suffix for plural was a likely component of the language (including here on L.SE; Wiktionary). Is this a ...
3
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2answers
215 views
Does the Slavic word rā́dъ have cognates in Indo-iranian?
I found a source which gives the PIE origin: http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/ielex/X/P1589.html
But it only lists Slavic reflexes. Are there related words in Persian or Sanskrit?
Wikipedia ...
3
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1answer
420 views
Solution to a typological problem about PIE phonology: are there any facts that contradict this view?
Traditionally, PIE phonology postulates three voiceless velar/uvular stops to PIE:
*/ḱ/ (c), */k/ (q), */kʷ/ (q̆)
But I made a search for a PIE dictionary with come 11-15 thousand words, and found ...
3
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1answer
263 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
683 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 "...
3
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761 views
Where are PIE phonemes transliterated as IPA?
Where can I find each PIE phoneme (which I don't know how to pronounce) transliterated and represented as IPA?
Afterword: (Delightedly but fortuitously) Searching 'Grimm's Law' on Youtube directed ...
3
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1answer
166 views
What laryngeal should be reconstructed in PIE word for wasp?
I encountered a contradiction between two respectful monographs.
Mallory gives the word as h2/3u̯obhseh2 thus excluding h1 while de Vaan gives totally opposite version, h1u̯obhseh2 thus excluding h2 ...
3
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1answer
202 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 ...
3
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1answer
239 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 ...
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1answer
198 views
Are PIE *bʰewg- “flee” and PIE *bʰegʷ- “flee” cognate?
These two verbal roots *bʰewg- "flee" and *bʰegʷ- "flee" share the same meaning and very similar forms, the only difference is their ending consonant.
I wonder whether they are from a same root or ...
3
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2answers
322 views
In PIE are words for two and for hate connected?
In PIE we have
du̯is twice
du̯iteros second
du̯oi̯os twofold
du̯eiplos double
etc, with the root du̯ei̯-
At the same time we have:
du̯eiros fearful
du̯eisos hated
with seemingly the same ...
3
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1answer
149 views
Are the words for one and for going cognates in PIE?
We have in PIE:
e̯eitr way, pedestrian road
e̯imos road
e̯iera̯ year
e̯eiti goes
e̯iteros other, another, next
I wonder whether the word for "one"
e̯oinos alone, separated
connected to the ...
3
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0answers
88 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 ...
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0answers
118 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 ...
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182 views
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 later....
3
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3answers
491 views
Are the cognates of PIE roots in this paper reliable?
I came across a long paper with many cognates of PIE roots, some examples:
*weid- "to see" and *sueid- "to shine" < *weid-es-weid-,
*h₂ǵ- "to drive" and *sh₂ǵ- "to seek" < *h₂ǵ-es-h₂ǵ-,
where *...
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5answers
480 views
Could Proto-Indo-Uralic be reconstructed?
I am interested in linguistics and how words spread from place to place. I have seen that there are two language families, and that there are signs that they might be related. Proto-Indo-Uralic is the ...
2
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3answers
261 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 ...
2
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2answers
178 views
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 L. ...
2
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1answer
157 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 ...
2
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1answer
95 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 ...
2
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1answer
329 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 ...
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2answers
270 views
Is there a LaTeX package for Proto-Indo-European laryngeals?
I'm including some PIE examples in my Latex-formatted thesis. What font package or predefined symbols will help me?
2
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2answers
198 views
History of Preverbs in Indo-European
As you may know, quite some of the IE languages know preverbs, who may modify the meaning of a verbal root. I would like to know more about the interrelation of the various preverbs found in these ...
2
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1answer
241 views
How can a PIE root be a 'pronominal stem'?
i- |
Pronominal stem. |
1. This answer explains the possible difference in meaning between 'root' and 'stem', which induced my question in the title above.
2. What does it mean for a stem ...
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1answer
81 views
How did 'litotes' evolve from 'plain, simple'?
litotes (n.)
rhetorical figure in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its opposite, from Greek litotes, literally "plainness, simplicity," from litos "smooth, plain, small, ...
2
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1answer
127 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 ...
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1answer
115 views
What were the broad meanings of the various (nominal) declination classes in proto-IE?
As everyone (who is familiar with proto-Indo-European) knows, it is an inflectional language with several cases, a few accent-ablaut patterns, and a number of (thematic/athematic) declination classes. ...
2
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1answer
113 views
Swadesh list for proto indo-european and coefficient of relatedness
Given two Swadesh lists of two languages, we can calculate a "coefficient of relatedness" by counting the proportion of cognades. Given two languages, L1 and L2, let's call C(L1,L2) to this ...
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1answer
118 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 ...
2
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1answer
160 views
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
word-...
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0answers
46 views
Some idea of PIE in the ancient world? [duplicate]
Did the ancient Greeks and Romans have the idea (at least partly) similar to the concept the Proto-Indoeuropean language?
Many among the elite spoke Greek fluently or at least learnt it intensively. ...
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0answers
68 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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1answer
105 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. ...
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0answers
285 views
Manifestation of negation in proto-indo-european? [closed]
Does anybody know when and how linguistic negation was manifested in
proto-language (anyone, for example, proto-indo-european)?
What is meant by "linguistic negation" is these patterns of language
...
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0answers
233 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 բա in Armenian which is used for expressing amusent as ...
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3answers
638 views
When did PIE people split into subject-verb-object — SVO and SOV peoples?
Given that PIE people have present-day descendants in India to Europe, they have divided so starkly: in the given map, most languages from India to middle east upto east Europe are SOV, whereas most ...
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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.
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0answers
197 views
Is PIE “*wank-” the ultimate root of E “wankle”?
wankle
From Middle English wankel, from Old English wancol (“unstable, unsteady, tottering, vacillating, weak”), from Proto-Germanic *wankulaz (“unsteady, wavering”), from Proto-Indo-European *...
2
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1answer
320 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 (...
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1answer
105 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 ...
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Proto-Indo-European phonetic and pronunciation [duplicate]
They say nobody exactly knows how Indo-European words were actually pronounced since obviously there was no Sony sound recorder back then.
So, what are these phonetic symbols that they use to ...
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3answers
276 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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1answer
175 views
Etymology of ぐるぐる
Since it's written in Hiragana, I presume it is likely not a recent loan word. However, its pronounciation bears resemblance to "軲轆", a Mandarin word meaning wheel--similar to ぐるぐる's meaning ...
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1answer
418 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....
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1answer
366 views
What's the relationship between Old English and Germanic?
I read a line in the book "The Germanic vocabulary of Old English has not survived particularly well into the current period". This really confused me a lot. Isn't English a branch of Germanic ...
