Script on excavated terracotta seals from Harappa deciphered ????

[Dominique.Thillaud]

At 20:18 +0100 10/11/97, Vidhyanath Rao wrote:

>Is Ce:C a variant of CeC or from a totally different root (CeHC)?

        Both are possible, but the vrddhi of the *root* is rare and,
usually, secondary. But they are some examples:
gr. phOr "thief" < pherO "bharAmi" (the one who bear the stolen thing)
gr. thEr "wild beast" and lat. ferus "wild".
(
In *suffixes*, the phenomenon is very common as you can see in the greek
equivalent of pitR:
empty: gen.sg pa-tr-os, dat.pl. pa-tra-si (<*patR-si)
e: acc.sg. pa-ter-a (< *pater-n)
o: nom.pl. a-pa-tor-es "without father"
E: nom.sg. pa-tEr
O nom.sg. a-pa-tOr
)
        Knowing if Ce:C comes from a CeC or not (for a root) is not easy:
you must find good alternances because CeC can be a CHC ! Usually the Greek
is the best for vocalic archaism, as the Sanskrit is the best for
consonantic archaism and for tracking laryngeals under their 'i' result.
        Conversely, Greek is bad for consonants (elimination of 's', 'y',
'w', confusion between 'gw' and 'b', &c.) and Sanskrit bad for vowels
(confusion between 'e' and 'o', between the three laryngeals, frequent
vrddhi).

        Namaste,
Dominique

Dominique THILLAUD
Universite' de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, France