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The Ie Root *mei: *mei- and Avestan mīzn

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Maria Wilkins Smith
Maria Wilkins Smith*
Affiliation:
Temple University
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Extract

Certain forms of the Greek word for ‘mix’ which have γ instead of κ as the final of their root-syllable, e.g., the present μíγνυι and the 2nd aorist ἐμíγην, appear to be anomalous when compared not only with the other forms of the same Greek verb but also with its cognates in other Indo-European languages, where all forms point to as the primitive IE root-final. Boisacq derives μíγνυμι from pIE *mei- and states, without further comment, that ‘le grec a la gutturale douce’. Walde, s. v. misceo, gives the Greek cognate as ‘mit Media’, but makes no remark on the phenomenon except to reject Wackernagel's theory of an independent origin for μíγνυμι. Apparently, then, Boisacq and Walde explain the disagreement in root-finals by the theory of the socalled variation of the root-determinative.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 4 , Issue 3-Part1 , September 1928, pp. 178 - 180
Copyright
Copyright © 1928 Linguistic Society of America

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References

1 E. Boisacq, Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque 637–8 (Paris, 1916).

2 A. Walde, Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch 2 488 (Heidelberg, 1910).

3 J. Wackernagel in Kuhn's Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung 33. 39.

4 P. Persson, Studien zur Lehre von der Wurzelerweiterung und Wurzelvariation, Upsala, 1891.

5 For this important step in my argument I am indebted to Prof. Roland G. Kent of the University of Pennsylvania.

6 Transliteration as in Chr. Bartholomae, Altiranisches Wörterbuch, Strassburg, 1904.

7 Die Gatha's des Awesta, Strassburg, 1905.

8 Boisacq 700.

9 K. Brugmann, Grundriss der vergleichenden Grammatik der indogermanischen Sprachen 2 1. §§612–3 (Strassburg, 1897).

10 N. Söderblom, ‘Note sur l'agriculture dans l'Avesta’ in Revue de l'histoire des religions 59. 333–7.

11 AiW 1108.

12 F. Wolff, Avesta.....übersetzt 326 (Strassburg, 1910).

13 Liddell & Scott, Greek-English Lexicon 8 966, med.

14 This is my own translation, shortly to appear as part of my doctoral dissertation, and differs in certain points from that of Bartholomae given above.

15 Cf. R. G. Kent, ‘Cattle-tending and Agriculture in the Avesta’ in Journal of the American Oriental Society 39. 329–33.

16 Av. übersetzt, 1. c.