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Proto-Indo-European (PIE), the reconstructed proto-language for the Indo-European language family

4 votes

Do Linguists pronounce PIE roots

There's a lot of variation. In my experience, many Indo-Europeanists will (try to) pronounce the voiced aspirates as breathy voiced consonants (possibly thanks to having studied Sanskrit, as jlawler p …
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8 votes
1 answer
271 views

Are PIE *suHnús "son" and *snusós "daughter-in-law" related?

One of the Proto-Indo-European words for "son" appears to have been *suHnús (Skt. sūnú-, Goth. sunus, etc.). The word for "daughter-in-law" is reconstructed as *snusós (Lat. nurus, Gk. νυός, etc.). Co …
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2 votes
Accepted

PIE root streig- : How to reconcile 'To stroke, rub, press'?

These definitions aren't contradictory: they all refer to physical contact with some unspecified amount of pressure, and with the possibility of simultaneous movement along the surface. The resulting …
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3 votes
Accepted

How does the Greek 'legein' relate to PIE *leg 'to collect'?

The basic meaning of the root *leǵ- was "pick out". Compare e.g., from Latin, se-lect, col-lect: to collect things is to pick them out (legō) and place them together (con-). In Greek, the development …
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8 votes

Solution to a typological problem about PIE phonology: are there any facts that contradict t...

This proposal creates a lot more problems than it solves. First, I don't think the rarity of the biphonemic sequence /kw/ is that problematic: plain velars are relatively infrequent in any case, so it …
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6 votes
Accepted

Were the so-called aspirates of PIE ever aspirated?

Although fdb is correct that a symbol like *bh should not be taken to imply any specific phonetic content, these phonemes obviously had such content, and it's possible to speculate about what it was. …
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5 votes
Accepted

Is there a PIE feminising noun suffix?

The main PIE feminine derivational suffix was -ih2: compare *deiu-o- 'god' with *deiu-ih2 'goddess' (Skt. devī). Incidentally, this suffix is actually the indirect source of the Greek suffix -ssa: wh …
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4 votes
Accepted

Etymology of Old French 'escorgier': How does 'bind' evolve to mean 'whip'?

The sense "bind" gives a noun for a thing you bind with, i.e. a "thong" or "strap"; this in turn comes to mean "whip" because a whip and a thong are similar things; and on this is based a verb meaning …
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2 votes
Accepted

Recent book on PIE and older proto-languages?

Benjamin Fortson, Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction James Clackson, Indo-European Linguistics: An Introduction Both are recent, well-balanced treatments by scholars of repute.
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5 votes
Accepted

When did the vocalic allophones of the consonant phonemes in PIE become independent vowel ph...

Phonemes are a theoretical construct, so the answer will depend to some extent on one's theoretical preferences; note that even for PIE many scholars posit independent vowel phonemes /i u/. But basica …
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6 votes
Accepted

Why can verbal roots in PIE only contain the vowel e?

It's not that PIE roots always contain the vowel e, it's that PIE roots don't contain vowels. This is a common misconception, unfortunately aided by the traditions of IE lexicography. Take a root lik …
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4 votes

Understanding the reflexes of PIE *ǵneh3- in Sanskrit, Latin and Greek

@fdb's answer addresses the Indo-Iranian forms, so this one will address the Greek and Latin ones. In Greek, there are two relevant sets of sound changes: PIE *eH > Gk V̄. That is, *e followed by …
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3 votes

Could someone illuminate for me how PGmc *suma and *sama(n) were derived?

They are indeed both from the same PIE root, which however is reconstructed with a laryngeal, *semH-. PGmc *sama- "same" is a thematic derivative from the o-grade of this root, *somH-o-, found in man …
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14 votes

What language branch of PIE does Kartvelian belong to? (Georgian language)

Kartvelian is not part of Indo-European, and in fact is not known to be related to any other language family. Some linguists have connected it with IE as part of a proposed larger family called Nostra …
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14 votes

Apparent sound crespondences between Eurasian, Trans-New-Guinean, Pama-Nyungan and Burushaski

I don't see any regular correspondences in the data you've presented. A regular correspondence involves a series of forms in which, whenever language A has sound X, language B has sound Y. For example …
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