Dear Peter,
Greek <koadáma = potamogeíto:n
'pondweed'> is a foreign plant-name mentioned by Dioscorides;
it's supposed to be Dacian. Since its origin and structure are obscure,
comparison with <aqua> is idle speculation. The analysis of
<thalassa> you cite looks interesting but hardly convincing. The geminate
-ss-/-tt- has many possible sources, and what is *dHl- supposed to
mean?
Another word thought by some to be a
cognate of <aqua> is Sanskrit ka- '(n.) joy, water, head', but this again
is too vague to be of much service.
The Hittite verb can be interpreted as
e:KW-tsi/aKW-antsi; the stem is no doubt the same as in Tocharian AB yoktsi
'drink', i.e. *(h1)e:KW-, where *KW may represent *kW, *gW or *gWH (in fact, the
last choice seems to be favoured by IEists at present).
Latin + Germanic (what would you offer for
Celtic?) only show that the word is "West IE". There are quite a few terms
restricted to that area (i.e. shared by Italic, Celtic, Germanic or any two of
them).
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2001 7:31 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] The Middle Voice.
> But what is **akwa?? How is it attested as the IE word
for "water" other
> than in a couple of western IE branches?
There
are suggestive forms elsewhere, eg:
Hitttite e-ku-uz-zi "drinks" 3
pl a-ku-wa-an-zi
Greek: koadama someone who lives by the
water
There is also a suggestion that Thalassa in Greek in not a loan
word, but is
made up of *dhl + akw-ya
In any case, Latin + Germanic +
? Celtic is reasonably convincing.
Peter