Terminology (Re: Piotr-)

From: Richard Wordingham
Message: 25425
Date: 2003-08-29

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tolgs001" <george.st@...> wrote:
> >We discussed this long ago, c.
> ><http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/15549>.
> >
> >Richard.
>
> Can "*dentu" in your opinion interpreted as
> an equivalent of Lat. "gens"? If so, why?

I don't know what *dentu- is extracted from, so I can't comment on
that aspect. As to the phonetics, I'm surmising a development as in
Albanian, g^ > ð, though it could also be an affricate; I'm not sure
how, for example, /dz/ would have been rendered in Greek. I don't
like the voicing, but I don't think it's impossible. For example,
the palatals could heve become fricatives before a Grimm's law shift
in Thracian. I'd prefer to see more parallels.

As to the stem, well Gothic has _tunþus_ for 'tooth', so I don't see
any problem with the ending.

Richard.