*temh2-? (was: Re: The paradox of the Basco-Caucasian hypothesis)

From: stlatos
Message: 62276
Date: 2008-12-23

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...> wrote:
>
> On 2008-12-23 01:50, stlatos wrote:
>
> > There is Dorict tma:tos, also témakhos 'slice of meat' (témenos
> > shows assimilation of short V that can come from V of any origin), so
> > *temh2- in this notation seems better.
>
> Opinions are divided over this. Some authors prefer *temh2- and I've
> seen <tma:tós> cited in support of *h2, e.g. by Sihler. Yet I have not
> managed to find the source of this form and I suspect it may be a ghost
> word. Does anybody on the list know a text in which it appears? What
> does occur is Doric-looking <tetma:kei> and a few similar forms used by
> Archimedes and several examples of <a(:)> in the conjugation of
> <tme:go:>. They are so few that they could be hyper-Doricisms. LIV has
> *temh1-, at any rate.

The -a- in témakhos, though, doesn't seem to have another possible
explanation. OIr taman 'tree stump' and MIr tamnaid 'lops' seem like
good evidence (one with Celtic e-a > a-a) for h2, too.