On 04-11-09 18:35, whetex_lewx wrote:
> There is ablaut gold - gyldan in English.
>
> d <--- t is PIE suffixe.
There's no ablaut here, just Old English UMLAUT. PGmc. *gulþa- gives OE
gold, and the weak verb *gulþ-j-an yields OE gyldan > Mod.E gild. Both
are nil-grade derivatives (< pre-Gmc. *g^Hl.to-). ABLAUT is the relation
between *g^Hl.to- and its Baltic and Slavic counterparts, which derive
from pre-BS *g^Helto- and *g^Holto-, respectively. They look like
independent derivatives of *g^Hel-, but their structural similarity
(despite the ablaut differences) is puzzling, as is their geographical
distribution (N/E Europe). If they are areal loan-translations meaning
'yellow metal', why does BSl. have non-Satemised *gelta-/*gilta- <
*gH(e)l-to- for 'yellow' (and *gilna: < *gHl.-nah2 in bird-names), but
reflexes of *g^H in words for 'green'?
Given the historical instability of colour terminology, it's likely that
*g^He/ol-to- is simply older than the secondary differentiation of
*gHel- : *g^Hel- in PBS, so that at the time when the 'yellow metal'
term was diffusing across the North European Plain the adjective meaning
'yellow' (or rather 'yellow/green') was *g^Hl.-tó- (with a non-Satem
variant, *gHl.-tó-) everywhere. In pre-Gmc., it was substantivised by
means of accent retraction, but in PBS dialects a full vowel was infixed
in the root of the derived noun. _Later_, the non-Satemised variant of
the root came to be associated exclusively with the meaning 'yellow' in
BS, but the 'gold' word was already living an independent life.
Piotr