[tied] Renfrew's theory renamed as Vasco-Caucasian

From: stlatos
Message: 50185
Date: 2007-10-01

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "fournet.arnaud" <fournet.arnaud@...>
wrote:
>
> Some interesting words :

> i alternates with zero
> pinu-skô
> pneu-ma

I don't think there's any way these can be related. Since pinúsko:
<< pinutós 'wise' < *putinós but né:pios / ne:pútios 'infant' < the
neg. *né:putinos with n-n > n-0 dissim. before metathesis they seem
sim. only in one form by chance. Both i>0 and u>0 occur here; it
doesn't seem likely either is connected with ablauting e instead of
sporadic V-loss in Greek.

> Long i: versus zero
> ki:ku-s strength
> shvayati to be strong
> *ku- > shv as in kuHon "dog"

This and Skt çíçu-s 'child, young of an animal' are from reduplicated
*kYikYuxu+s 'swollen (with bodily power or with child, etc.)' which >
*kYikYxu+s by haplology and also *kYixkYu+ by metathesis > Skt çiMçu-
in compounds.

The length in Greek probably comes from i between CY_CY (though
depending on timing met. could work).