Hi, folks.
Sorry I was silent - I'm sure you all missed my infamous "ascorbic tongue",
as it were. At any rate, I figure I should respond more to Piotr's
discussion of the word "apple" because I have some new thoughts on it and
the topic seemed to die once I got busy with things in my physical world. :(
Simply put, is it possible that the word is in fact based on the root *xem-
"to taste sour"? I guess apples were more like crab apples back then :)
Plus, is it possible that the root here was in reality *xemx-/*xmex- with a
final laryngeal? I explain...
If we reconstruct *xemxlos for "apple", we get a literal meaning of "sour
(thing)" since it would be formed from the adjectival stem *xmxlos (Sanskrit
a:mra, was it?). We might further explain the "southern dialectal" forms
that Piotr mentioned as being related to a related form with *xmex- (Latin
ama:rus).
Finally, the solution seems sufficient to explain why *-ml- becomes *-bl-
instead of **-mpl- since the laryngeal would serve as a devoicing element
for the *m, producing *p: (later *b). So *xemxlos becomes *xep:los (later
*ablos).
There. I think this is a happy solution solved the gLeN way.
- gLeN
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