Re: Pseudo-cognates

From: tgpedersen
Message: 15698
Date: 2002-09-24

--- In cybalist@..., "Piotr Gasiorowski" <piotr.gasiorowski@...>
wrote:
> --- In cybalist@..., "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
>
> > I've used this one before
> > Proto-Oceanic
> > waga large sailing canoe; outrigger canoe (generic)
> > IE
> > *wegH- -> wain; road; move etc
> > which would have to include an unpleasantly large semantic shift;
> but
> > I just discovered that the root occurs in 'wind' too...
>
>
> Not English <wind>, which < *h2weh1-nt-o-, but it's true that the
> verb *weg^H-e- could be used of winds, water currents, etc.
>
> Piotr

Sorry, my misunderstanding. However, if we permit an alternation gH/g
(Hermann Møller claimed systematic correspondences for these IE
alternations in Semitic; since I suspect what he found was common
loanwords, I should accept this alternation) we might look at Gmc
*wa:k-

Falk & Torp: Etymologisk ordbog over det norske og det danske sprog
/vage/
(float lightly on the waves, of boat or ship; float, of buoy),
Sw. /vaka/ "float easily", in dial. "stay afloat, not sink", Norw.
dial. /vaka/ "stay afloat" (of boat or ship), "appear on the surface
(of water)" (of fish), New Icel. /vaka/ "appear on the surface (of
water)" = Dutch, Low German /waken/ "be dry above water (of banks and
skerries)", "float (of buoy)", cf Eng watch "be afloat (of buoy)"
Further /vager/ "buoy", Sw. /vakare/ = Dutch, Low German /waker/ ...;
cf Nw. dial. /vak/ "buoy on net; school of fish appearing on surface
of water". Apparently /vage/ is the same word as /våge/, the Danish
form due to Low German influence.
...
Belongs to maritime laguage and was used originally of object that
were visible (as opposed to "blind skerries" etc).

/våge/ "channel in ice for ships", Sw. /vak/ "hole in ice" (dial.
also /väkke/, Nw. colloq. /vok/, Old Norse /vo,k/ f. "opening or hole
in the ice" = Middle Low German /waak/ (Dutch /wak/); cf Nw
dial. /isvekkja/ "breaking up of ice". Engl. wake is borrowed from
Norse. Further /vække/ "cut hole in ice", Sw.
dial. /väkka/, /väkkja/, Nw. dial. /vekkja/. Same word is Sw.
dial./väkka/ "cut chips from fir wood (for tar)", standard Sw. /väcka
ondt blod/ "stir up strife", Nw. dial. /vekkja blod/ "cause blood to
run", /vekkja aar/ "open an aquifer" (also /vekkra/), Old
Norse /vekkja blóD/ and /vøkva blóD/. The last form shows that the
word belongs with Old Norse /vøkvi/, /vøkva/ "humidity,
fluid", /vo,kr/ "humid" = Dutch /wak/, /vo,kna/ "become humid"; cf
Nw. dial. /vekja/ "aquifer in the ground". The verb thus means "cause
to run, float". IE *veg^-


Float, hole, appear?
This all makes me suspect that the original Bronze age use was of the
vehicle of the sun, which was first a boat, later a wain.

Torsten