Sound laws and the suffix of the PIE "middle" participle.

Georges-Jean Pinault (1)

1 Mondes Iranien et Indien - UMR 7528

Discussion of the reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European suffix *-mh1no-, which can explain the so-called middle participle of several Indo-European languages, with the exception of Anatolian. This suffix has however an unusual structure, by comparison with the alternative reconstruction *-m(e)no-, related to the well-known action noun suffix *-men-. The paper shows that originally this suffix was not marked for voice, and its eventual specialization for middle is corollary to the specialization of the suffix *-(e/o)nt- for the active participle. The shape of the suffix is explained as from a second compound member, which has been reinterpreted as suffix with possessive value.

Mots clés: Participles; Indo-European linguistics; Indo-European etymology; Suffixes; Nominal compounding

Domaines: Linguistique

Georges-Jean Pinault. Sound laws and the suffix of the PIE "middle" participle. . Roman Sukač ; Ondřej Šefčik The Sound of Indo-European 2. Papers on Indo-European phonetics, phonemics and morphophonemics (Opava Conference, 16-18 November 2010)., LINCOM Europa, pp.227-251, 2012, LINCOM Studies in Indo-European Linguistics, 978-3-862883790. ⟨halshs-01446594⟩