I've been thinking about it myself. If one
insists on connecting <aqua> with *h2ap- (which is found in some Satem
groups, where *k^W and *kW are not confusible), *h2akW- is the preferred choice.
Both Germanic *ahWo: 'water, river' and its Vernerian cognate *agW-jo: >
*awjo: 'island' can easily derive from it. Pokorny suggests that Germanic *a in
this word alternates with *e: -- e.g. OE ae:g-weard 'ocean-watch' and ON æ:gir
'god of the stormy ocean' could in theory derive from something like *e:kW(i)jó-
-- but I am not convinced.
*ek^wos (omitting the laryngeal) is almost
generally regarded as related to *o:k^u- 'swift', though not without formal
problems, usually dealt with in an ad-hoc manner. To be frank, I am not sure
what to make of the long vocalism of *o:k^u-, and I'm not willing to multiply
laryngeals ad absurdum (*h1oh3k^u- is hardly elegant, and the necessity of
deriving *ek^wos via a monstrosity like *h1h3k^w-o- only adds to the
embarrassment). I suppose we haven't yet discovered all that can be known about
PIE vrddhi (morphological vowel-lengthening); *o:k^u- and *ek^wos will perhaps
be reduced to something more elementary like *h1ek^-u- one day (this reminds me
of the "bird/egg" business and putative *h2ewi-s : h2o:wi-o-m).
<SPECULATION> Perhaps we should
reverse the derivational relation and derive the adjective "swift" from the noun
"horse" rather than the other way round. *h1ek^-u- would be formally parallel to
other livestock terms, namely *pek^-u- and *gWeh3-u- (if this is how *gWou-
'cow' is to be analysed). It has been proposed that Greek
(h)ippos/ikkos/*ikwos derives directly from a primitive paradigm like
*h1ek^u-/*h1k^w-o- (there are other examples of prothetic /i/ from *h1 before
stops), and not from *h1ek^wos as a late thematic variant of (hypothetical)
*h1ek^us. </SPECULATION>
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2001 12:59 AM
Subject: Question from the back row (Was Re: [tied] Finnish hevonen
"horse"
*****GK: Working from Latin. Do "aqua" (water)
and "equus" (horse) go back to the same phoneme(s) in PIE re their "qu"?
*****