Re: request to Celtic specialists

From: dgkilday57
Message: 68257
Date: 2011-12-01

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <bm.brian@...> wrote:
>
> At 3:12:17 PM on Monday, November 28, 2011, dgkilday57
> wrote:
>
> > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "dgkilday57"
> > <dgkilday57@> wrote:
>
> [...]
>
> >> Since Burrow has no problem with Proto-Indo-European
> >> */a/, he extends *kan- 'small' back to PIE and derives
> >> from it Middle Irish <cana>, <cano> 'wolf-cub', Welsh
> >> <cenau> 'wolf-cub, dog-whelp', Latin <canis> 'dog' (on
> >> the theory, earlier 'whelp'), the first element of
> >> Maeonian <Kandaúle:s> 'Dog-Strangler' (epithet of Hermes,
> >> Hipponax fr. 3 Masson), and Slavic <konI> 'horse' (on the
> >> theory, earlier 'foal'). The semantics are not difficult,
> >> with Umbrian <katel> 'dog' against Lat. <catulus> 'young
> >> animal, whelp' providing an illustration, but for those
> >> of us who lean toward Lubotsky in avoiding PIE */a/, the
> >> phonology and morphology pose a challenge. In prevocalic
> >> zero-grade, PIE *ken- should yield *kn.nV- by
> >> Sievers-Edgerton, whence *kanV- in In-Ir and Italic. (The
> >> latter is argued from the P-Italic negative prefix <an->,
> >> apparently generalized from prevocalic position while
> >> Q-Italic extracted preconsonantal *en-, Lat. <in->.) I
> >> will leave the Celtic words aside, since I no longer have
> >> access to recent etymological material.
>
> > According to Schrijver, cited by Lubotsky (Reflexes of
> > PIE *sk in In-Ir, Incontri Linguistici 24:25-57, fn. 21,
> > 2001), the Celtic forms (including Middle Welsh <ceneu>
> > 'puppy') reflect Proto-Celtic *kanawon- < PIE
> > *kenh{x}won-. If this suffix *-won- functions like
> > Sanskrit -van- (e.g. <yájvan-> 'worshipping' from <yaj->
> > 'to worship'), the root can hardly be *kenh1- 'to pinch,
> > compress' vel sim., since *kénh1won- would have an active
> > sense 'pinching, pincher'. Then again, perhaps a puppy
> > was considered a 'little nipper'.
>
> Matasović also gives PCelt *kanawon- 'young animal, young
> dog, whelp'. He derives it from PIE *(s)ken- 'young, new',
> with cognates Russ. <ščenók> 'young dog, puppy' and Arm.
> <skund> 'yound dog'. Refs.: LEIA C-32, GPC I: 461, DGVB
> 101, EIEC 204.

He must be taking *-awon- as the same second element found in PCelt *altr-awon- 'foster uncle', cf. *awon-ti:r- 'uncle', Lat. <avunculus>, etc., PIE *h2ewh2o- 'grandfather', Lat. <avus>. The problem I see here is that his PCelt *a:wyo- 'descendant, grandchild' is a vrddhi-derivative, which the short vowel of *kanawon- excludes, and 'puppy, whelp' is a descendant, not an ancestor.

DGK