Re: [cybalist] Hamp and his dog, an IE shepherd

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 2358
Date: 2000-05-05

 
----- Original Message -----
From: Glen Gordon
To: cybalist@egroups.com
Sent: Friday, May 05, 2000 10:19 AM
Subject: Re: [cybalist] Hamp and his dog, an IE shepherd



Glen wrote:
 
Hmm, if the word for "dog" were based on *peku-, it would be
assuming that the word only reaches back to 6000 BCE or so since dogs
shouldn't be herding *peku before then, yes?
 

Zoologists now claim that domestic dogs have been around for more than 100 000 years; but it's possible, I think, that their new Neolithic function led to renaming them as 'herders' or 'shepherds' and the older term sank into oblivion. As a less likely alternative, you could imagine that before *peku- came to mean '(small) livestock' it was applied to dogs. I would't bet on this, I'm just thinking aloud -- but the Slavic word for 'dog' is *pIs-U- (Polish pies, on which see below), and the fact that the *s doesn't undergo the RUKI rule shows that the Pre-Slavic reconstruction (if the word is that old) must be *pik- or possibly *p@...- (a reduced vowel may yield Slavic *I).
 

This would then raise the question of what word came before it and dogs have
been around us much longer than that. In fact, I have some trouble accepting
that a word for a common and anciently cohabitating animal would be replaced
so completely by a new formation. Are there examples of this process in
written languages?
 
 
PLENTY of examples. Polish krowa for *gWo:us, koń for *ekwos, pies for *kuo:n; English lamb for *xagWnos, horse for *ekwos; Latin capra for whatever you believe to be the PIE 'goat' word (there are three or four candidates), canis for *kwo:n (even if they ARE somehow related, which is far from certain, it is a case of replacement); Romance *kaballu- for Latin equus, *kattu- for Latin felis, French brebis/mouton for Latin ovis/aries, etc., etc., etc.
 

I know that "hound" ended up being knocked to the side with "dog", although
the original term is still alive and kicking... Where did OEng /docga/ come
from? Was it a loan from somewhere?
 
 
It's "obscure", as etymological dictionaries put it. There is a recent article on OE docga/hund somewhere, but I haven't clapped eyes on it yet. If I do I'll tell you if there are any new suggestions. Some words just seem to spring out of nowhere.
 
Piotr