Which Anatolian language has this 'ass'
word? Perhaps you mean Hurrian es^s^i- 'horse', which is suggestively similar to
Arm. e:s^ (if we can place the Proto-Armenians within borrowing distance of the
Hurrians not later than the mid-second millennium BC, and if the
Proto-Armenian change of *k^w > *s^ can be dated that early). In Anatolian,
the (Hieroglyphic) Luwian 'horse' word <a'-su`-wa-> (Lyc. esb-) looks for
all the word like a loan from Mitanni (para-)Indo-Aryan *as'wa-.
Of the Indo-Iranian word for 'ass', *kHara-
(Av. xara-, Ved. kHara-) is a loan of disputed origin. Douglas Q. Adams has
speculated that Toch.B kercapo- and Skt. gardabHa- might reflect an IE word for
'ass' (or 'hemione', or perhaps the extinct European ass, _Equus
hydruntinus_). However, apart from irregular Iranian correspondences the word is
unknown elsewhere in Indo-European, as is most likely another loan (*garda-,
with the Indo-Aryan animal-name suffix <-bHa->). Michael Witzel seems to
think that the vaguely similar terms *kHara- and *garda- (one could adduce
Khotanese xad.ara- 'mule') ultimately derive from the same Near Eastern source.
He quotes Akkadian h.a:rum 'male donkey'.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, March 06, 2002 4:04 AM
Subject: Re: [tied] *ekwos and esel?
It seems that Anatolian also has 'es' for ass. Is there a
possibility that German, Latin and Anatolian got it from the same source since
the German and Anatolian are similar?