[tied] Re: PNS

From: Daniel J. Milton
Message: 46172
Date: 2006-09-22

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...> wrote:


> The 'house' word is plausibly assigned to the etymon of PIE *(s)keuh1t-
> 'cover' (widespread, with the equally common variant *(s)keut-; the two
> are often found alongside each other in the same branch) as *kuh1t-to-s
> > *xu:ssaz > *hu:saz. Gmc. *kutta- (n.) 'cottage' looks like something
> ultimately related but borrowed from a non-Germanic IE source. I think
> such a solution is more plausible than Pokorny's forced derivation of
> *kutta- from *geu-d-, especially in view of the striking parallel case
> of Lat. cunnus < *kut-nó- and Germanic *kunto:n/*-tt- 'you-know-what'.
> If you want something that does look like a bunch of related substratal
> words, here they are. If something like *kutnó- was borrowed between
GL1
> and GL2, when PGmc. had no voiceless stops, it may have been adapted as
> *gudná- (with the metathetic variant *gundá-), eventually yielding all
> those strange reflexes. I don't want to speculate if FU *kota 'house'
> (cf. Hung. ház, Khanty xot) is related to any of the words mentioned so
> far; at any rate, words with this meaning make good Wanderwörter. Note
> also Slavic *kotU, *kotIcI (a diminutive in *-iko-) 'cage, pen' and OE
> heaþor 'confinement' (*k&t-ró-?).
>
> Piotr
********
One thing I remember from reading Gamkrelidze and Ivanov (OK, maybe
about the only thing I remember) is their explanation of the "house"
word: picked up from the Yeniseian during a wide swing to the
northeast. It's such an entertaining idea, I wish I could take it
seriously.
Dan