From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 16821
Date: 2002-11-21
----- Original Message -----
From: tgpedersen
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2002 5:01 PM
Subject: [tied] Re: The "n" in ALAN
>> And while we're at it, it's also hard to believe that Eng. dream and Latin dormio: are unrelated, but that's a fact. The collection's growing ;-)
TP:
> I think you want to say: not derivable from the same root using known derivation rules. That's a fact.
That's the definition of "unrelated" in historical linguistics. There's simply no common denominator for the two even if you relax the discipline of comparison a little. Borrowing from a common source is not likely either, especially as no such source can be proposed.
> Isn't BTW <dream> one of the Germanic 30%-words?
It's quite likely a derivative of PIE *dHreugH- 'deceive, delude', cf. Ger. trügen, ON draugr 'apparition': *dHrougH-mo- > *draugma- > *drauma-.
Lat. dormio: is perhaps related to Slavic *dre^mati 'doze, sleep', but then the underlying etymon must be *der- with various extensions (*der-m-, *dr-eh1-, *der-dH-, see Pokorny), which makes it look a little dubiuos, though still possible. Note that this word family refers to 'sleeping' rather than 'dreaming', which also sets them apart from the Germanic root.
Piotr