the Wheel and Dating PIE

[Larry Trask]

Ed Selleslagh writes:

>  After reading Ante Aikio's contributions, I suspect Uralic might begin
>  to shed 'some' light on this matter. On the Basque side we have the
>  intriguing matter of a number of suffixes that also pop up in IE
>  (e.g.-z-ko <> -(s)ko in Slavic, basically with the 'same' meaning and
>  use).

A suffix *<-ko> is commonly posited for PIE, and this developed an
extended form *<-s-ko> in some branches, notably Germanic.  Basque
has a very common suffix <-ko>, and a compound suffix <-z-ko> (phonetic
[-sko]).

Many years ago, the late Antonio Tovar published a series of articles
arguing that the PIE and Basque suffixes were so similar in their behavior
that they must derive from a common source, which he took to be some
(rather murky) kind of ancient contact.

I have criticized this idea rather severely in various places.  The
problem is that the Basque suffix does not really behave very much like
the PIE one.

The PIE suffix was a word-forming suffix.  It derived chiefly adjectives
but also nouns.  I have never seen any suggestion that it ever had
a syntactic function.

The Basque suffix, in great contrast, is primarily a syntactic suffix:
it can be added to just about any adverbial constituent, regardless of
internal structure, to produce a preposed adjectival modifier.  That
'preposed' is significant, since lexical adjectives in Basque are
postposed.

Basque <-ko> also has two other functions, marginal by comparison.
It can derive a preposed adjectival from an N-bar satisfying certain
partly obscure conditions.  And it can derive nouns from nouns.

Now, the Basque suffix does not derive adjectives -- the chief function
of the PIE *<-ko>.  It does derive nouns, but only marginally.  It is
overwhelmingly a syntactic morpheme, while the PIE suffix is not.
This doesn't look to me like a good case for proposing a common origin.

Finally, Basque <-z-ko> is transparently only the instrumental suffix
<-z> -- which is adverbial in function -- plus <-ko>.  It cannot possibly
be identified with the *<-s-ko> found in IE.

Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk