Odp: [tied] Sarasvati River

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 7442
Date: 2001-05-31

I'd rather say that there are no known rules in Iranian that *allow* the development *haraxva(i)ti: > ranha.
 
As regards the first point, it could be argued that the old name of the Volga was Proto-Indic or at any rate non-Iranian Aryan rather than strictly Iranian, and that the Iranians borrowed it after the branch-specific changes of Proto-Indo-Iranian consonants. Not *raza-, at any rate, but *ra(n)ga-/*ra(n)ja-, because the root of Skt. raMhate etc. derives from PIE *h1lengWH- 'light, fast'.
 
Some also derive the old names of the Volga (Rha:, RaNha) from *h1ers- 'moisture' and/or *ro:s 'dew' (the two are most likely related as *h1er-s-/*h1r-es-).
 
Piotr
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Alexander Stolbov
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2001 9:24 AM
Subject: Re: [tied] Sarasvati River

Should not we expect something like Iranian *raz-a- corresponding to Indic rah-a- ? 
 
And what about the development Harahvaiti > Ranha? Is this formally not impossible? Or there are linguistic rules which forbid this?
 
Alexander
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2001 2:20 AM
Subject: Re: [tied] Sarasvati River

Perhaps connected with Old Indic raMh-, rah-a- 'run, hasten' (raMhas- 'speed' etc.)?
 
Piotr