Re: [tied] Let dogs have their day too (Was Re: More numbers)

On Sat, 5 Oct 2002 06:18:16 -0700 (PDT), george knysh <gknysh@...> wrote:

>
>--- Miguel Carrasquer <mcv@...> wrote:
>> The dog was the only pre-Neolithic domesticated
>> animal. I'm not aware of any
>> evidence that it comes from SE Asia.
>
>******GK: Speaking of man's best friend (PIE man's
>best friend too?)what's the story on basic "dog" words
>and roots? Canis (chien of course), hund, dog etc.. In
>Ukr. (and I presume other Slav tongues) we have "pes"
>(any relation to or confusion with the catty p:s?) and
>"sobaka" (the latter I have sometimes heard described
>as cognate to Iranic forms?)******

The most wide-spread root is *k^wó:n, *k^unés (Grk. kúo:n, Ir. cú, We. ci, Goth.
hunds, Lith s^uõ, OPr. sunis, Toch ku(:), Arm. s^un, Avest. span-, Skt. s'van-.
Latin canis, despite its irregular phonology, probably also belongs here.

Other words are (amongst others) Spa. perro (probably from a calling cry:
"prrr!"), Cat. gos (calling cry for small dog: "gus/kus/kuc^"), E. dog (docga)
(origin unknown: I have suggested in the past a link with Basque zakur (<
*daggur/*daggun), perhaps borrowed from Celtic (Irish dag cú "good dog")), Slav.
pIsU (either from *peik^- "spotted" or *pk^u-os "+/- sheep dog"), Russ. sobaka
(< Iranian spaka).

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...