The Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben is an etymological dictionary of the Proto-Indo-European verb. The first edition appeared in 1998, edited by Helmut Rix. A second edition followed in 2001. The book may be seen as an update to the verb entries of the Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch by Julius Pokorny. It was the first dictionary fully utilizing the modern three-laryngeal theory with reconstructions of Indo-European verbal roots.
The ''LIV'''s hypothesis about aspect
The authors of the LIV assume a dichotomy between telic verbs and atelic verbs in early stages of Proto-Indo-European. Before the daughter languages split off, aspect emerged as a new grammatical category. Telic verbs were interpreted as aorist forms, and the missingpresent was formed with various suffixes and the nasal infix, all of which are supposed to come from old grammatical forms of uncertain meaning. Atelic verbs were interpreted as present forms, and the missing aorist was formed with the suffix-s-, yielding the sigmatic aorist. This hypothesis is used to explain various phenomena:
an index of reconstructed primary stems, sorted by aspect and formation rule,
an index of reflexes in the daughter languages, sorted by language.
Reception and criticism
Seebold claims insufficient evidence for roots reconstructed from a single daughter language. Helmut Rix insists in the preface to the second edition that the assessment of the evidence should be left to the reader.
Seebold also criticises some of the conjectured meanings. Rix calls this criticism basically legitimate.
Meier-Brügger tentatively calls the LIV's aspect hypothesis “adequate and capable of consensus”, without agreeing on all of the details of the analysis.
Fortson calls the LIV “ery useful and up-to-date – though in various places controversial”, but does not elaborate on the controversial places.
Ringe states that the theories in Rix largely reflect current consensus, but implies that some of his phonological reconstructions may go beyond the consensus.
Grundriß der vergleichenden Grammatik der indogermanischen Sprachen
Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, with reconstructions pre-dating the laryngeal theory
Indo-European Etymological Dictionary, an ongoing project based in Leiden, intended to result in the publication of a comprehensive Indo-European etymological dictionary
Nomina im Indogermanischen Lexikon, structured similarly to the LIV and treating PIE nouns and adjectives
Lexikon der indogermanischen Partikeln und Pronominalstämme, structured similarly to the LIV and treating PIE particles and pronouns.
