Re: [tied] First iron swords on mass scale

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

From: Miguel Carrasquer Vidal

To: cybalist@egroups.com

Sent: Friday, October 13, 2000 6:41 PM

Subject: Re: [tied] First iron swords on mass scale

 

In view of the Germanic and Balto-Slavic reflexes, the most plausible reconstruction for North European 'silver' seems to be *silbr-o-, with an epenthetic vowel of variable quality inserted in some languages to break up the combination *-ilbr-, normally impermissible in native IE words (*-ilbr- > -ilubr- or -ilabr-), and anaptyxis in the -br- sequence whenever the thematic vowel is lost. The Celtiberian development would have been rather like this: *silbrom > *silabr(o) > silabar. From what you write, it seems as if the word had been more likely brought to Spain by Celtiberians than borrowed from Basque, contrary to what's usually claimed. If so, its absence from the rest of Celtic might be due to its ultimately northern origin.

 

Piotr

 

Miguel wrote:

Besides the Basque forms I mentioned (<zilar>, <zidar>, <zirar>),
there's another (highly localized) variant <zildar>, which doesn't fit
the usual scheme.  Maybe it's a contamination of Basque <zidar> with
Celtiberian <silabar> (or whatever the exact form of the word is that
appears on the Botorrita inscription).  I don' t think something like
*silVbar- can normally give Basque *sidar or even *sildar (or
viceversa), so I remain sceptical.  Phonetically, the connection with
the Greek word is much more plausible, even if it means "iron" instead
of "silver".  Especially considering that the Greek words for "lead"
have very likely an Iberian origin.