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Why is τηλικοῦτος (< τηλικ + οὗτος) not spelled τηλιχοῦτος? Cf. e. g. ἀφορισμός.

Joonas Ilmavirta
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Toothrot
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1 Answers1

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Beekes writes that houtos is from *so-h²u-to-, “a univerbation of the *so/to- pronoun with the stem that also figures in autos”. In this case τηλικοῦτος is not tēlik + houto-, but tēliko + uto (without the pronoun *so).

fdb
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  • And besides, τηλικ has the same pronoun (notice how the interrogative (with pi) and correlative alter the initial letter), so there may have been some sense of redundancy in the οὗ. – Hugh Nov 06 '18 at 12:36
  • αὐτός seems pretty transparently to come from αὖ το- "that one again" > "that (same) one", so probably there wasn't really a morpheme uto, but rather τηλικοῦτος is an analogical formation based on οὗτος (which maybe is what you're saying). – TKR Nov 06 '18 at 22:40
  • Would this also apply to τοιοῦτος, τοσοῦτος, τοιόσδε, τοσόσδε, such that they are not to be pronounced with an aspiration? – Toothrot Nov 12 '18 at 11:09