Sergei:
>I wonder if this lautn can be compared to PIE *leudh- 'folk etc.'
>(and may be even puia to *gWen-).
Many people wonder the same thing. My idea is that /lautn/ derives from
IndoTyrrhenian *lawe-t:exan "people of the river". I know that the /-au-/
part can't be from IndoTyr *-eu- because that should become Etruscan /-u-/
so it would appear that the first syllable /lau-/ arose from two syllables
*lawe-. The word *t:exan "river" becomes IE *dexnu (with added -u ending).
So:
IndoTyr *lawe-t:exan
- ProtoTyr *lawe-t:en (Etruscan /lautn/)
- ProtoIE *lawos-dxn�us
All this is suspicion of course but I don't hear any better etymologies of
this word out there.
- gLeN
_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at
http://www.hotmail.com