Re: [tied] Water, water everywhere

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 7187
Date: 2001-04-21

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 -----
From: petegray
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
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