PD: Armenian <=> Phrygian

----- Original Message -----

From: Piotr Gasiorowski

To: DEROUBAIX YVES

Sent: Sunday, January 30, 2000 9:22 PM

Subject: Odp: Armenian <=> Phrygian

 

----- Original Message -----

From: DEROUBAIX YVES <CLYV.DEROUBAIX@...>

To: <gpiotr@...>

Cc: <gpiotr@...>

Sent: Sunday, January 30, 2000 5:25 PM

Subject: Armenian <=> Phrygian

> Hello,
>
>
>
> The Phrygian language is close related to Armenian and I found in a
> dictionary that the Armenian word for bread is pronounced like 'hats'. I
> don't know much about the Armenian language but I think the word can't be
> related to Phrygian 'bekos'. Could you give me some words 'hats' is related
> with. When 'hats' should be related to 'bekos', could you tell me what's
> happened with the word in Armenian phonology.
>

---

Armenian hacH (cH = aspirated ts) is derived by some from *pekW- 'cook, bake'. This root occurs e.g. in Latin coquere (with assimilation *pekW > *kWekW > *kokW-; hence English cook, an old loan from Latin), Sanskrit pacati 'he cooks', Farsi paxtan 'cook', Greek petto:/pesso: (*pekW-j-o:) 'I cook', and Slavic *pek-e- 'bake', *pekti 'oven', *potU 'sweat' < *pokWtos. If you want my opinion, I don't accept this etymology. Word-initial *p regularly gives Armenian h, but neither the vowel nor the final cH match the PIE reconstruction.

 

It seems to me that the real source of hacH is PIE *pax-ske- 'feed, nourish, lead (livestock) to graze' (Latin pa:scere, OCS pasti, related to Hittite pahs-, TochB pa:sk- 'guard'). Something like *paxsko- would yield Armenian hacH without the slightest difficulty. Polish pasza 'fodder' is from the same root, and so is perhaps Latin pa:nis 'bread' (if it represents older *pa:s(k)nis).

 

Piotr