From: Patrick C. Ryan
Message: 8270
Date: 2001-08-03
----- Original Message -----
From: "Glen Gordon" <glengordon01@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2001 8:41 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Loha, copper, red: any IE cognates?
>
> Patrick says weird things again:
> >It is quite possible that it might be a compound of, e.g. me5, 'water' +
> >luh, 'shine',
>
> The Sumerian word for water is /a/. The Semitic root
> for water is *may-.
[PCR]
The sign that reads a, 'water', also has the reading me5.
One may choose to interpret it as an unrecorded loanword from Akkadian (which does not have **me, 'water', but has rather mu) since *may- is a root designating water in other Afrasian languages, but then I would contend that *mVy- is a widely spread root for 'water(-course)', and may even be present in IE *mey-, 'wander, go', the basis for river-names like German Main.
Whether Sumerian mê5 is a loanword from Semitic or an inherited Sumerian word (both based in Nostratic *mo:y-) or not does not affect whether Meluhha is analyzable in Sumerian as a compound of mê5+luh+a or not.
Pat
PATRICK C. RYAN | PROTO-LANGUAGE@... (501) 227-9947 * 9115 W. 34th St. Little Rock, AR 72204-4441 USA WEBPAGES: PROTO-LANGUAGE: http://www.geocities.com/proto-language/ and PROTO-RELIGION: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/2803/proto-religion/indexR.html "Veit ec at ec hecc, vindgá meiði a netr allar nío, geiri vndaþr . . . a þeim meiþi, er mangi veit, hvers hann af rótom renn." (Hávamál 138)