27-04-2019, 12:28 AM
To get back at the subject at hand though... it is true that words with the same stem can look different. This used to be the case in early Germanic languages like Gothic. The word "to fell (a tree)" was derived by a productive system from the main stem "fall". Similarly the past tense "fell" belongs to the same stem "fall".
It all depends on the language family. In some languages the stem will be reliable (like Latin), while in others it won't always be.
It all depends on the language family. In some languages the stem will be reliable (like Latin), while in others it won't always be.