From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 6483
Date: 2001-03-09
----- Original Message -----From: a96_aeu@...Sent: Friday, March 09, 2001 12:48 PMSubject: [tied] Re: Albanian> Comparing to similar deviations in other languages - if it possible to do so - how long back in time could the change in meaning from "deep" into "sea" have occurred ?It seems there was no common IE word meaning "sea" (*mori comes closest to it, but it is found mainly in the northern branches of the family and its original meaning must have been less specific -- a body of water, or the like). The individual branches formed their "sea" terminology independently and in different ways. "The deep" for "the sea" is a rather comon term. It's difficult to date its formation with any precision, I'm afraid.> The reason I brought in question <guv-> (cave) was the superficial likeness to <cave>.
Then I guess even Albanian "grop-" (hole; hollow; cave) has not derived from <*k^owilo- > because the root is already taken from "thellë". What wonders me more is how identic in meaning this word is to Swedish "grop" (dimple; pit; hollow; cavity; hole) !
I wouldn't like to risk any wild guesses about <grop->, but maybe I'll come up with something next time. I've been thinking of <guvë>, though. If one insisted on an IE etymology, it could be derived from the (vaguely iconic) root *gHah2- 'open, yawn' (hence *gHah2-m(-r), *-m-en- 'mouth, palate', also Eng. gum < OE go:ma). The derivative *gHh2-wo-s is attested with the meaning 'cavity, empty space' (cf. Greek khaos < *khawos), and derivation of Alb. guvë from it would be pretty straightforward.Piotr