Re: [tied] The centum-word.

On Tue, 03 Apr 2001 00:48:20 -0000, markodegard@... wrote:

>MCV said
>
>> The link between the collective and the feminine
>> is part of PIE orthodoxy, so to speak, but I have
>> yet to see a good explanation for such a thing.
>
>Actually, the bull and his feminine-gendered herd makes a rather good
>explanation, provided one sees the (post-Anatolic) PIE-speakers being
>into heavy-duty stock-breeding.
>
>You keep a few of the *best* males for breeding, and turn the rest
>into veal, while harvesting his momma's milk, or, turn him into a
>steer if you're just raising 'beeves'. Thus has it always been with
>cattle (and other edible domestic critters). Anything else is economic
>nonsense.
>
>Why is it not 'a good explanation', Miguel?

It's a perfectly good description of what happens (what we do) with
bovines, but I just don't see how you can derive a feminine gender
from that. Steers have names (because there's only a few of them),
but so have cows (because you milk them every day). I don't think
"cow(s)" were commonly referred to in the collective (*gwo:us is
animate/feminine, but not an *-(e)h2 stem, and the same goes for most
other female *pek^u(h2)), so why should *gwna(i)h2 be a collective?
The "diminutive" explanation works much better.

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...