From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 18086
Date: 2003-01-25
----- Original Message -----
From: "alex_lycos" <altamix@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 25, 2003 6:39 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Re: Yellow as an PIE word
> Should it be the only one? What about *verdh wachsen, steigen; hoch' ?
In this case we will have the root "verd" already in PIE and no need of Latin for explaining romance "verde" trough elidation of "i" from Latin
viridis
The derivation of <verde> etc. from <viridis> is straightforward and unproblematic. Both words mean 'green'. The syncope of the unstressed medial /i/ in <virdis> is not only a natural process but it's also directly attested (see, e.g., _Appendix Probi_). Why complicate matters by introducing unattested and unlikely prototypes? Of course Latin couldn't have been the source of the Romance word, since in Latin *werdH- would have become *verb-. But do you know a reflex of *werdH- in _any_ language with the meaning 'green' or the like?
Piotr