A note on Greek ἰκμάς
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Tore Rovs Kristoffersen
Abstract
The Greek word ἰκμάς ‘moisture’ and its derivatives reflect a PIE root usually reconstructed as either *sei̯kʷ‑ or *sei̯k‑. After a survey of the comparanda, it is concluded that only the Greek form points to *sei̯k-, while reflexes in other branches, particularly Germanic, explicitly require *sei̯kʷ‑. A solution to this problem is then suggested in the form of a new Greek sound law *Kʷm > Km. The traditional view, which treats the development of *Kʷm as identical to that of *Pm, is shown to be untenable: forms such as ὄμμα ‘eye’ (Transponat *h₃okʷ‑mn̥) do not reflect inherited formations, but are rather to be understood as created within Greek after the general post-Mycenaean development *Kʷ > P. The sequence μμ found in such words therefore reflects underlying *Pm rather than *Kʷm. Finally, three further possible examples of Kʷm > Km are presented.
© 2022 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelei
- Inhalt
- Altisländisch vatr neben vatn, färöisch vatur neben vatn ‚Wasser‘
- Alternative etymologies for two British Celtic verbal forms
- The Luwic inflection of proper names, the Hittite dative-locative of i- and iia̯ -stems, and the Proto-Anatolian allative
- Sobre el origen de la escansión larga de la sílaba reduplicada de ἵημι
- Luwian Tarhunaza-, Cilician Τροκοναζας, Τρικοναζας
- Take up your arms
- Hermes Ἀργεϊφόντης and Agni bhā́r̥jīka
- Une innovation divine
- The mixed aorist subjunctive in Classical Armenian
- A note on Greek ἰκμάς
- Greek τηλεκλυτός ‘far-famed’ and its Welsh comparanda
- Interlocked life cycles of counterfactual mood forms from Archaic to Classical Greek
- The root of all gluttony
- Artemis Orthia
- Linguistic evidence for Kuṣāṇa trade routes
- Variation and change in the formal marking of Khotanese I
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelei
- Inhalt
- Altisländisch vatr neben vatn, färöisch vatur neben vatn ‚Wasser‘
- Alternative etymologies for two British Celtic verbal forms
- The Luwic inflection of proper names, the Hittite dative-locative of i- and iia̯ -stems, and the Proto-Anatolian allative
- Sobre el origen de la escansión larga de la sílaba reduplicada de ἵημι
- Luwian Tarhunaza-, Cilician Τροκοναζας, Τρικοναζας
- Take up your arms
- Hermes Ἀργεϊφόντης and Agni bhā́r̥jīka
- Une innovation divine
- The mixed aorist subjunctive in Classical Armenian
- A note on Greek ἰκμάς
- Greek τηλεκλυτός ‘far-famed’ and its Welsh comparanda
- Interlocked life cycles of counterfactual mood forms from Archaic to Classical Greek
- The root of all gluttony
- Artemis Orthia
- Linguistic evidence for Kuṣāṇa trade routes
- Variation and change in the formal marking of Khotanese I
