-t versus no consomant in 3p sg verb forms in common IE

[Henry M. Hoenigswald]

>  It is usually said that the 3rd person singular in IE ended in -ti
>(primary) or -t (secondary). But Greek has the forms {luei} = "(he)
>releases)", {elue} = "(he) was releasing".
>  {elue} may well < I.E. {eluet} : notice that in Greek it adds an "n
>ephelkoustikon" if the next word starts with a vowel, which doesn't
>happen in the similar imperative form {lue) = "release!" which didn't
>lose a final consonant; as if the n-ephelkoustikon replaces an earlier
>etymological t-ephelkoustikon.
>  But re Greek present {luei}: did this form come from *{lueit}?; or
>perhaps it never ended in a {-t} in the first place. IE *{lueti} would >
>Attic Greek **{luesi}.
>  Perhaps in early IE times the final -t was only present when the verb
>had no noun subject, and ultimately derives from an adhering postposited
>pre-IE subject pronoun.

For a try, see HMHoenigswald,  'Some considerations of relative chronology:
The Greek thematic present', in A.Etter (ed.), _o-o-pe-ro-siŠ Risch_ , pp.
372-5.  Berlin, de Gruyter (1986).

Henry M. Hoenigswald
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