From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 16615
Date: 2002-11-07
----- Original Message -----
From: m_iacomi
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, November 07, 2002 10:08 PM
Subject: [tied] Re: cognates for lituanian "ravas"?
--- In cybalist, alexmoeller@... wrote:
>> I am just wondering if there are more cognates for the lituanian "ravas" = wet, with moisture, cognates which will show a common IE root. Any ideea? ( i hope I am not misstyping and the lithuanian word is indeed "ravas":)
> It's slightly misspelled: Lithuanian word for "wet" is actually
<slapias>, having its cognate in Latvian <slapjdh>.
... or the meaning is distorted. Lith. ra~vas means 'ditch' and corresponds exactly to Slavic *rovU, from the root *h1reuh2- (see Pokorny's *reu(&)-) 'tear out; dig' (Lith. ra'uti, Slavic *ryti). A ditch can get quite wet, of course, and the same PIE root underlies a number of rivernames, but this is its only (and indirect) connection with moisture.
Piotr