Re: [tied] PIE mustelids and seals

But, how many species of birch exist? What's their geographical distribution, past and present?

Names of plants and animals usually change along their distribution.

Examples:

The name of the Old World lion is used in USA and Mexico to the cougar (Puma concolor).

In Platine South American Spanish countries the jaguar (Panthera onca) is called tiger.

At some places of Southern Brazil the New World vultures are called "corvo" (raven).

There's no wolf in Brazil, but the maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus) is called lobo-guara' (from guara= Tupi awara "wild canid" )

There's no fox in Brazil but the lesser species of canids are called "raposas-do-campo" (field foxes)

So, for example, PIE could had a name for "saiga", but this name might be changed to antelope in India, and deer or roe in Europe.

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

From: Marc Verhaegen

To: cybalist@egroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, October 24, 2000 6:04 PM

Subject: Re: [tied] PIE mustelids and seals

I thought that the word "birch" was related to "bright", ie, the light-coloured tree. Is this so? Then it is unambiguous, isn't it? --Marc

This etymology seems obvious, though *berhtaz is only found in Germanic, i.e. is far less well-attested than the birch name supposedly derived from it. Indic has a related bhra:j- < *bHraxg- 'shine, flash', hence bhra:ja- 'glittering'. There's something funny about this root -- too many consonants, as if it were an obscured and lexicalised compound. The alternation *bHerxg- ~ *bHraxg- is probably due to PIE r-metathesis (as in *ters- ~ *tres- 'shake') rather than root-suffix ablaut; *bHerxg- would not have done as the phonetic realisation of a verb stem, and metathesis would have fixed its structural flaws. Who knows if the verb and the adjective are not derived from the tree name! ("birch-white", "glitter like birch-bark"). Piotr

Yes, but then the tree was still unambiguously the berch -- at least in Germanic & Indic?