Re: [tied] Re: Parvati

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

From: Dennis King

To: cybalist@egroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2000 7:37 PM

Subject: Re: [tied] Re: Parvati

 

I wholly agree with Dennis. The formation of vRddhied adjectival derivatives is entirely productive in Sanskrit.

 

Just to clarify the structure of parvata- and similar words:

 

Hittite peruna-/piruna- 'rock', perunant- 'rocky', and Pirwas 'the Rock God' (no puns please) suggest the analysis *per-w(e)n-o-/-ont-, *per-wo-, Indic parvata- < *per-wnt-o-. None of these forms matches the 'fire' word with its complicated ablaut: *pax-wr ~ *pax-w(e)n- ~ *px-[u]wo:r ~ *px-ur-. Glen's "prefix" per- meaning 'fire' is an illusion.

 

*Per- has a variety of meanings in IE and it's not clear if we are dealing with a single lexeme (as suggested by Chris and by Walde/Pokorny style dictionaries) or two (if not more) homophones. Secondary associations and folk etymologies may have led to the "convergence" of originally different but phonetically similar etyma for 'strike, push, move forward' (*per-), 'rock, boulder, mountain' (*per-u-), 'oak' (*perkW-o-), with oak-tree spirits, thunder gods and mountain deities undergoing formal and functional mergers. It's a good thing no-one has proposed so far that Peru is called Per-u- because the sierra is so prominent there.

 

Piotr

 

Christopher Gwinn wrote:

> Parvati should perhaps come from Sanskrit parvata "mountain"

I was taught (if I remember correctly!) that pârvatî is derived
from parvata using a straightforward and entirely productive
derivational process called secondary suffixation - that is, applying
"taddhita pratyaya", which builds new nominal stems from old ones.

Primary suffixation (creating nominal stem from verbal root):

budh (awaken) + ta (primary suffix) > *bhudhta > buddha (awakened)

Secondary suffixation (building new nominal forms):

buddha + vRddhi (vowel change) > bauddha (a Buddhist)

manah (mind) > mânasa (mental)

puruSah (man) > pauruSeya (human)

kuntî (Kunti) > kaunteyah (male connected to Kunti, her son, Arjuna)

I believe Pârvatî is always assumed to mean "She of the Mountain" in India.

Dennis King