Reconstruction talk:Proto-Hellenic/təmnēmi

RFD discussion: November 2019–August 2023
This doesn't fit the Greek form, which reflects. —Rua (mew) 09:49, 3 November 2019 (UTC)


 * Quite right. According to Beekes 2010 in the entry for τέμνω, "The nasal present τάμνω << PGr. *tamnēmi < PIE *tm-neh₁-mi is original, as is the root aorist 3sg. *etemet < *h₁e-temh₁-t, which was replaced by a thematic aorist ἔτεμον.  This situation was levelled in various ways in the dialects: Att. innovated with the present τέμνω, while epic Ion. and Dor. secondarily created the aorist ἔταμον."  Beekes states at the beginning of the entry that the form τάμνω is attested in Epic Ionic as well as Doric.  This τάμνω appears to be simply a thematicized version of the original athematic nasal present PIE *tm-neh₁-mi attested in several IE languages. --Demolition man (talk) 22:54, 4 November 2019 (UTC)
 * I think there's several aspects to look at then.
 * Athematic vs thematic inflection.
 * The appearance of the ē.
 * e or a in the root.
 * Based on the forms you've given here, all forms of Greek seem to agree on the first two points: thematic inflection with no ē. They only differ with respect to the third point. I think Beekes is therefore correct on the distribution of e versus a. On the other hand, I think it goes too far to reconstruct Proto-Hellenic with athematic inflection and ē. After all, we know that PIE started off in one situation and Greek ended up in another, but we can't tell at what point one form got replaced with the other in the history of Hellenic. It could be entirely possible that an intermediate stage had thematic inflection but kept the ē, i.e. . In cases like this, I believe the reconstruction should be based on the later point in time (which is actually attested) rather than the earlier point (which is reconstructed). So I think that we should reconstruct (aorist ) for Proto-Hellenic, with points 1 and 2 agreeing with their later attested forms rather than their earlier PIE reconstructed forms. —Rua (mew) 08:53, 14 November 2019 (UTC)


 * Deleted (rather than moved to a different reconstruction), if for no other reason than having only a single descendant. —Mahāgaja · talk 14:02, 21 August 2023 (UTC)