Reconstruction talk:Proto-Samic/ruvtijëtēk

Iron

@Tropylium In Northern Sami, this means plate, as in to plate with iron. What is the relationship between this verb and *ruovtē? Should it be reconstructed as *ruovtijëtēk, assuming diphthong simplification in Northern Sami? —Rua (mew) 11:19, 23 October 2017 (UTC)

From what I can tell, ruvdet in the meaning 'to plate' is unrelated to the meaning 'to plait', despite the homonymous English glosses. As you say, the former seem to come from earlier *ruovtā-jë- > *ruovtijë- > *ruovtî- by diphthong simplification. I don't know if that derivative has cognates elsewhere; but all other descendants of the PS verb for 'to plait' (e.g. Inari ruvdiđ) point clearly enough to *u. --Tropylium (talk) 19:04, 23 October 2017 (UTC)

Inari Sami has ruovdiđ as an apparent cognate of rūvdet. —Rua (mew) 19:10, 23 October 2017 (UTC)

Also, do you think you could create entries for the various j-suffixes? They're quite tricky because of the contraction, and having entries would help clarify the picture. —Rua (mew) 19:16, 23 October 2017 (UTC)

I could create skeleton entries for sure, but I don't have lists of their specific reflexes across the Samic languages if that's what you're asking. Really I don't think the derivational morphology of most Sami varieties has been described well enough to begin with. --Tropylium (talk) 11:30, 24 October 2017 (UTC)