Re: [tied] Re: House and City

Miguel:

>The Egyptian for "four" was <jfdw>
>(*/?Vft.aw/ < *<?-p.-t.->). Schenkel compares this with forms like
>Somali <afar> "4", and Beja <fad.ig> "4". I might add Chadic (Hausa)
><f(w)ud.u> "4".

I like the Hausa connection and discovered it on my own previously but I
thought Hausa had something like /h.ud.u/... I'm gonna look that up.

>The interesting thing is that Schenkel next compares
>Semitic <?arba3-> "4", from *<?arp.aG->, and by metathesis and
>(irregular) *t. > r, ultimately from a PAA prototype like
>*<?Vp.t.-VGu> (> AEg. <?afd.aw>, Somali <afar>) or *<p.Vt.-VGu> (>
>Beja <fad.ig>, Hausa <fud.u>).

This is contrived. End of story.

>At the time, I was thinking about the possibility that cases of
>Germanic *f/*b, besides general PIE *kw, might reflect a PIE phoneme
>*pw, so a hypothetical *<pwetwor-> "four" (**putVwa:r-) fit right in
>with this PAA form *<p.Vt.VGu>.

Miguel, you've already lost most of us with the preceding connection between
the forms in Chadic and Semitic. Why push it to the extreme with desperate,
hi-speed blender reconstructions?

>To this, we can add Basque <hirur> "3", which can be derived from
>**<tilut->, and <laur> "4", possibly from **<lapt->.

Um, not likely, but there's nothing stopping you I guess...

- gLeN


_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com