Re: [tied] Re: Latin Volcanus and Ossetic Værgon

I agree that formal difficulties militate against connecting *wlkWos with Vulca:nus; and I'm not aware of any totemic association between smiths and wolves either. *welk- as a semantically vague "fire" or "lightning" term is marginally attested and more plausible as the basis for the Latin and Ossetic theonyms (Ossetic, by the way, has lost the Indo-Iranian "wolf" word *vrka-).

Piotr

----- Original Message -----
From: João S. Lopes Filho

To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Friday, July 06, 2001 3:17 PM

Subject: Re: [tied] Re: Latin Volcanus and Ossetic Værgon

What I know is that Vulcanus and Vaergon < *welk- "to shine, to burn", cf. Sanskrit Varcas "shine, fulgor" and ulka "metteor". Vulcanus < *vulca: Although Latin for wolf is lupus (<*lukwos < metathesis < *wlkwos), the non-metathesis form would be *vulcus,volcus. With a -nos ending, it would be *wlkwonos > vulcinus . If there's some link to wolf, *vulca: would mean "she-wolf". So, Vulcanus would be the "Lord of the She-wolf". I don't know any relation between Vulcanus and the wolf.