[tied] Re: PIE for "eel"

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: markodegard@...
> To: cybalist@...
> Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2001 7:18 PM
> Subject: [tied] Re: PIE for "eel"
>
>
> EIEC (Adams) gives *hxVnghl- - *hxVnghur, and says it's a word of

the

> West and Central IE realms. The article suggests eels were not

known

> in the waters of the North Pontic (they now reach as far east as

the

> Kuban, however).
>
> There seems to be contamination from the snake-word, at least in
> Latin.
>
> Adams' conclusion is the word is not diagnostic for the homeland
> question.
>
>
>
> --- In cybalist@..., "João S. Lopes Filho" <jodan99@...> wrote:
> > Is there a PIE word for "eel"? Or is it derived from words for
> "snake"?
> >
> > Greek egkhelys (dialectal emberis)
> > Lat anguilla
> > Slavic o,gori
> > Lit angurys
> > Prussian angurgis
> >
> > *angw-el-?
> > *angw-or-?
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of

Service.--- In cybalist@..., "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...> wrote:

> What words _are_ diagnostic, I wonder? The danger of circular

argumenation is always there, as groups migrating out of the range of
X (X = beech, birch, salmon, lion, eel or whatever) would be likely
either to lose the word or give it a new meaning (in the latter case
possibly making it hard to decide which meaning is original).
The "eel" word is relatively widespread -- apparently as widespread
as any general term for "fish" or any specific fish name. There has
probably been semantic contamination in several branches between
phonetically similar words meaning "snake", "eel" and "narrow, tight;
strangle; anger; fear", hence their variable form.

>
> Piotr
>

But why are the "phonetically similar" in the first place?
BTW I found this on a the usenet

*ngalé "eel" Hokan

I hope of course it's borrowed from Spanish.
Wouldn't a lot of phonetically and semantically similar, but
historically unrelatable roots point to it (them?) being borrowed
from outside? If not, what is the explanation for such inconvenient
clusters?

Torsten