Talk:biti

Etymologies here and on the Appendix:List of Proto-Slavic verbs are different... Which one is correct? I mean PIE etymology: *bʰeu(H)- or *bʰuh₂- ? Maro 13:42, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

Are you referring to any of the languages listed specifically? I know in some of these languages, biti has two meanings: to be or to beat. Some places also make PIE constructions differently than others, they're not standard as far as I'm aware. — [ ric ] opiaterein — 14:41, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

It should be more properly *bʰuh₂. However, "to be" verb paradigm is irregular and exhibits suppletive stems (namely that of *h₁es-) and it should be noted that Balto-Slavic *būtēy is the source for infinitive only. I'll look to create an appendix page for *byti that should detail it more.. --Ivan Štambuk 19:32, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

I know that the Lithuanian verb būti has two etymologies: One for the present tense forms, and another for the infinitive and the other forms. I'm not sure about the Slavic languages, though. — [ ric ] opiaterein — 20:49, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

Look at the conjugation table of OCS бъіти - it's exactly the same situation (also in modern Slavic languages). More info on w:Indo-European copula --Ivan Štambuk 10:56, 8 August 2008 (UTC)