Re: [tied] Re: There was a crooked snake

I mentioned the *(h1?)neg^H- root in my posting. The Germanic "boat" word is now often regarded as a nasal-stem derivative of *nah2- "swim, float" with a "hardened" laryngeal (Pokorny, of course, had no laryngeals at all, let alone Verschärfung). Alternatively, and in my opinion more likely, it represents a nasal extension of *nah2-u- with "hardened" [-xw-]. I don't think the derivation from an otherwise unknown "tree" root makes sense. In Balto-Slavic, one would expect *-o- to lengthen before *-gW- (so-called Winter's Law) as in *nagU (Slavic *a < *o:) < *nogWos 'naked', which is why an _aspirated_ voiced stop should be reconstructed for the "knife" word (if it goes back to anything PIE). Other evidence points to *-g^H- in this root.

Piotr

----- Original Message -----
From: tgpedersen@...

To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Saturday, July 14, 2001 11:28 AM

Subject: [tied] Re: There was a crooked snake

Well, this is from Pokorny: *nogwo- or *nagwo- "tree"? naga- "tree, mountain" Sanskrit nokkui "boat" Old Icelandic nahho "boat" Old High German naco "boat" Old Saxon naca "boat" Old English and this is EIEC: ?*H1negh-es- appr. "spear" nozhi (< *H1nogh-yo-) "knife" Old Church Slavonian engkos (?< *H1enghes-) "spear" Greek nes(s) "wound" Old Irish from *H1negh- "stab" cf. *derw- "tree" Proto-IndoEuropean dervo- "a tree" Gaulish dóru "spear, tree" Greek taru- "tree, trees" Hittite dáru "tree" Sanskrit taru- "spear" Thracian Not that I'm particularly convinced by it myself. I'm convinced however by the (in this context) off-topic Naga-trees, though. But I am repeating myself.