Augment (was Re: German ge- ptcpl cognates?)

[petegray]

It is clear that the augment was originally separate, an adverb, and not a
necessary and integral part of the verb, as it later became.   Homer and the
RV both preserve forms without augment that would later require it, and
prosodic features are certainly a factor in the choice, but these are
syllabic, not accentual, in both Homer and RV.

I wish to ask:
(a) what has the fact that sigmatic aorists have an accent before the sigma
got to do with the presence or absence of augment?   I see no connection.  I
also seem to remember that the Greek pattern of accentuation in verbs is a
development within Greek - RV keeps the accent further back.

(b) where is the evidence on the correlation mentioned between asigmatic
aorists and absence of augment?

Peter