Re: [tied] Afi & Amma

From: Eris

To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Monday, July 09, 2001 12:35 PM

Subject: [tied] Afi & Amma

I was rereading some "Norse" mythology this morning to pass a little time,
and I noticed something that might relate to a thread I started here not
too long ago:

Afi (supposedly meaning "grandfather") was the husband of Amma (||
grandmother).  Are these just coincidences, or is Amma perhaps cognate to
either Anatolian *hano (PIE *xanos) or *an(n)a, and is Afi cognate to what
seems like a Semitic (or other?) word for "father"?

[PCR]

It is very common for those who are predisposed to deny any wider connections among language-families to dismiss words like these as "nursery words", as if that somehow disqualified them for comparison purposes.

 

But, in fact, they form a significant group of very early formations that are characterized by a unique formation process:

 

a+X = family+X = family member

 

The two you mention are relatable to *ap- (family+swollen=phallus), 'father'; and *am-, (family+breast), 'mother''.

 

Others in the same series are *ak-, 'brother' (or perhaps, simply 'child'), *an-, *a(w)o- (family-testicle=progenitor), 'grandfather', and others less frequent.

 

Those who wish to dismiss them are "nursery words" have spectacularly failed to explain why nurseries around the world produce such distinctive words time and time again.

 

Pat

 

PATRICK C. RYAN | PROTO-LANGUAGE@...
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