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

To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Saturday, July 14, 2001 8:43 AM

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

I think Germanic *snak-o:n may be related to *(s)nah2- "swim", just like the "boat" word, which would give us a nice semantic distiction between "swimmers" (grass snakes) and "twisters" (adders, *ne:dr-o:n < *neh1-tr-). Skt. na:gá- refers to elephants as well as snakes and is supposed to be a vriddhied derivative of *nogW-o- 'naked (here: hairless)'.

 

[PCR]

I am in partial agreement here.

 

I believe IE *nog[w]-, 'naked', has the primary meaning of 'hairless' rather than 'unclad'; and that it is, in turn, derived from *noHg- (even earlier: *noHgh-), which corresponds to Egyptian n(j)H in n(j)H(-)sj, "Nubian".

 

"Hairless" is an appropriate description of snakes and, relatively, of many non-Caucasians.

 

Underlying form; Nostratic *no?-k?x(a), 'no-stative-hair'.

 

Pat

 

PATRICK C. RYAN | PROTO-LANGUAGE@...
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