Setting a Long Story Straight: Attic εὐθύς ‘straight’, Ionic ɩ̄҆θύς ‘id.’, and Vedic sādhú- ‘id.’
- Autores: Andrew Merritt
- Localización: Historische Sprachforschung = Historical linguistics, ISSN 0935-3518, Nº. 135, 2022, págs. 220-234
- Idioma: inglés
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Resumen
While it has long been assumed that the Greek dialectal variants εὐθύς ‘straight’ and ɩ̄҆θύς ‘id.’ are etymologically related to Vedic sādhú- ‘id.’, the phonological discrepancy in the material preceding the reflex of *-dh– in each of these comparanda has defied explanation. This paper argues that the variation can be explained by appeal to well-documented features of PIE syntax and derivational morphosemantics, chiefly, the predicative instrumental periphrasis with causative *dheh₁- ‘put, make, do’ and the parallel derivation of i-stems, u-stems, and root-nouns employable as substantives, in this case, the adjectival abstracts *séh₁-/sh₁- ‘length’ (: én-loc. *sh₁-én ‘for a long time’ [> ON sí ‘ever’] → *sh₁-én-o- ‘long-existing’ [> Ved. sána- ‘old’]), *só/éh₁-i- ‘id.’, and *só/éh₁-u- ‘id.’ derived from *√seh₁- ‘long’ (Lat. sērus ‘late’, OIr. sír ‘long’). Directly comparable to the calefacio-type as analyzed by Jasanoff (1978) and to the cvi-construction of Old Indic (Schindler 1980; Balles 2006), the equivalent phrases *sh₁-éh₁/séh₁-i-h₁/séh₁-u-h₁ dheh₁- ‘lengthen, elongate’ are reconstructed as the bases of compound thematic adjectives (e.g., rūbidus-type, Nussbaum 1999) whose patientive sense ‘elongated, extended’ conditioned the Property Conceptual (Rau 2009) meaning ‘straight’ and from whose substantival acrostatic u-stem derivatives were formed the proterokinetic etyma of sādhú-, ɩ̄҆θύς, and εὐθύς.
