re Northern Subject Rule

[proto-language]

Dear Rich and IEists:

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rich Alderson" <alderson+mail at panix.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 19, 2000 2:12 PM

[ moderator snip ]

> Actually, the same rule ("neuter plural nouns govern singular verbs") is
> found in Vedic Sanskrit and in Hittite.  It was the presence of this rule in
> Indic and Greek that led Schmidt to the conclusion that neuter plurals were
> in origin collective singulars.

> Note that the feminine in *-a: < *-eH{_1} is formally identical to the neuter
> plural = collective, which has led some to postulate a common origin, with
> the semantics developing from "member of a herd" => "female".  This proposal
> does not mesh well, in my opinion, with the proposal that the early IE verb
> system was active/stative.

[PR]

I favor a feminine from -/ha/ and a collective from -/?a/.

However, I would be most interested to learn how this affects the proposal
of an early IE active/stative verbal system in your opinion.

Pat

PATRICK C. RYAN | PROTO-LANGUAGE at email.msn.com (501) 227-9947 * 9115 W. 34th
St. Little Rock, AR 72204-4441 USA WEBPAGES: PROTO-LANGUAGE:
http://www.geocities.com/proto-language/ and PROTO-RELIGION:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/2803/proto-religion/indexR.html "Veit
ec at ec hecc, vindga meipi a netr allar nmo, geiri vnda~r . . . a ~eim
mei~i, er mangi veit, hvers hann af rstom renn." (Havamal 138)