Re: [tied] Etymology of "cat"

----- Original Message -----
From: Danny Wier <dawier@...>
To: <cybalist@egroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2000 1:13 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Etymology of "cat"


Let me add that Latin me:le:s 'badger' may be ultimately a byform of
fe:le:s. However, I somehow can't imagine IEs having had the same word for
martens and wildcats. Even modern Europeans are not that dumb, and the more
"primitive" people are, the finer ecological distinctions they make.
Mesolithic would have had lots of different names for different furry
animals rather than a cover term for all of them, from ermines to tigers.

Of course the IEs had no domesticated cats, but martens must have been
famous for their skins and wildcats, much as they keep themselves to
themselves, were too widespread to be overlooked wherever the IE homeland
was.

Talking of badgers, my memory failed me concerning the new reconstruction of
the IE 'badger' word I mentioned recently. The actual shape reconstructed by
Joshua T. Katz (nomen omen) of Harvard, first presented in a paper entitled
"Hittite taSku and the Indo-European Word for 'Badger'" at the 9th UCLA IE
Conference (1997) is *tasku-. The main comparanda are Germanic *taksu-
(German Dachs as in Dachshund), Celtic *tasko-/*tazgo- (alongside
better-known *brokko-), and Hittite tasku- 'scrotum (or something
genito-anal anyway)'. Late Latin taxus and taxo: (as well as taxea 'badger
fat') are loanwords (probably from Germanic via Celtic); Basque azkoin <
*(t)askone is again a Celtic loan. The argument (very cogent, despite the
seeming semantic distance between the Anatolian word and the Western ones)
involves the badger's anal and subcaudal glands, the animal's rank odour and
its musking rituals, and a lot of other fascinating stuff.

Piotr

Danny wrote:
> I read about another animal misnamed as cat: civet cat. A native of
> Ethiopia, it is (Ì believe) a mink-like rodent, prized for its musk
> (which in excessive amounts smells as bad as skunk musk). They are
> also better mouse catchers than the familiar house cat.
>
> Here's the listing in Dolgopolsky for possible relatives to _felis_.
> The use of Nostratic data is merely for comparative purposes (and not
> to promote anything). My comments afterwards.
>
> Nost.*bujL- "furry animal" (L = voiced lateral fricative)
> IE *bhel- "marten"
> Latin fêlês "wild cat, marten, polecat"
> Welsh bele (< *bhelego-) "marten"
> Uralic *pojL- "ermine"
> Proto-Sami *pôytak (dimunitive)
> Norweg. Sami buoidâ
> Kildin Sami pujdeG
> Samoyedic
> Tundra Nenets pija, pijako (latter is dimunitive)
> Forest Nenets pwîje@, pije@
> Bay Enets fiéda
> Nganasan fîd'u, pîd'u
> Mator hudja "ermine"
> Altaic
> Proto-Mongolian *bulugan "sable"
> Middle Mong. bulugan, bulGan
> Classical Mong. bulagan
> Halha bulga(n)
> Kalmyk bulG@...
> Dravidian *pulli "tiger"
> Tamil puli, pul
> Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu puli
> Kota puj
> Toda püSy (compare English "pussy(cat)"!)
> Tulu pili
> Koraga hili
> Naikri pul
> Nalki pul(a)
> Gadba pullu, pulu, berpul
> Gondi pullî, puli, pul
> My comments
> Apparently the "buydha" is some Eurasian animal, probably non-feline
> (despite the Latin data), is referred to here, since the mentioned
> language groups are IE, Uralic and Mongolian. How Dolgopolsky relates
> Dravidian "tiger" I don't know -- a tiger is MUCH larger than a marten
> or polecat. The phonemic correspondences match up pretty well though.
>
> Apparently, the primitive Indo-Europeans didn't think much of calling a
> small cat and a marten different names. They may not have even
> domesticated the cat -- the Egyptians are considered the first known
> people to do that. Or did the Dravidians domesticate the mighty tiger
> of India? (that would be right awesome...)
>
> > EIEC poinats out the possible relationship to Latin catulus 'young
> > animal'. ?*bhel- 'wildcat; any small carnivore' and ??*kat- 'cat'
> > are given as doubtful PIE etyma for felids. EIEC suggests Nubian
> > katis is the ultimate origin.
>
> Nubian, I wouldn't doubt it (the cat family seems to be ultimately
> African in origin). I'll check on any possible Nilo-Saharan origin.
>
> 117. Whatever it takes.
>
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