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PIE most likely could not have *r-alone in the onset of a root's syllable (apparent occurrences were *Hr-). Roots which ended in laryngeals are sometimes called disyllabic roots, as descendants in later languages would yield a disyllabic root, such as *ḱerh₂-"to mix", which later became kera in Greek. [14]
The meaning of a reconstructed root is conventionally that of a verb; the terms root and verbal root are almost synonymous in PIE grammar. [citation needed] This is because, apart from a limited number of so-called root nouns, PIE roots overwhelmingly participate in verbal inflection through well-established morphological and phonological ...
They were used to derive related words (cf. the English root "-friend-", from which are derived related words such as friendship, friendly, befriend, and newly coined words such as unfriend). As a rule, roots were monosyllabic, and had the structure (s)(C)CVC(C), where the symbols C stand for consonants, V stands for a variable vowel, and ...
For English, a modern English cognate is given when it exists, along with the corresponding Old English form; otherwise, only an Old English form is given. For Gothic, a form in another Germanic language (Old Norse; Old High German; or Middle High German) is sometimes given in its place or in addition, when it reveals important features.
In early PIE, the aspect system was less well-developed, and root verbs were simply used in their root aspects, with various derivational formations available for expressing more specific nuances. By late PIE, however, as the aspect system evolved, the need had arisen for verbs of a different aspect than that of the root.
For example, by Grimm's law PIE *p becomes Proto-Germanic *f, but the combination *sp is unaffected by this. Thus the root *(s)prek-, perhaps meaning 'to scatter', has two apparently quite dissimilar derivatives in English: sprinkle (from the nasalized form *sprenk-), and freckle (from *prek-). S-mobile is always followed by another consonant.
All except the Latin form suggest a masculine u-stem with non-ablauting PIE root *ǵen-, but certain irregularities (the position of the accent, the unexpected feminine ā-stem form in Latin, the unexpected Gothic stem kinn-< ǵenw-, the ablaut found in Greek gnáthos 'jaw' < PIE *ǵnHdʰ-, Lithuanian žándas 'jawbone' < *ǵonHdʰ-os) suggest ...
The imperfect continues the PIE imperfect of the same root but was rebuilt based on the 3rd person singular and plural. The preterite, on the other hand, comes from the thematic aorist of PIE * kʷel- ‘turn’ (cf. Ancient Greek épleto ‘he turned’, Armenian eɫew ‘he became’, Old Irish cloïd ‘turns back, defeats’).