Re: [tied] Loha, copper, red: any IE cognates?

You're right, Glen. <loha-> 'copper, metal', <lohita-> 'red', etc.
are dialectal derivatives of the *h1reudH- root (as in <rudHira->,
for example). Often two variants are attested side by side, e.g.
<rohita-> (older) and <lohita->. *dH > h is a frequent dialectal
development in Old Indo-Aryan, just like the l ~ r variation.

Piotr

--- In cybalist@..., "Glen Gordon" <glengordon01@...> wrote:
>
> >It appears that Proto-Indic, Munda substratum in Bha_rata, *lu-
> >related to semant. 'red' and 'copper' which was later applied to
> >ferrite (iron) ores. The early name of the river Brahmaputra in
> >Sanskrit literature is 'lohitya'. Is there an IE cognate for *lu-?
>
> Erh, hmmm. Try Greek /erythros/. There is no IE *lu- meaning
> "red" or "copper" at all. What you're looking for is IE *H1reudh-
> which explains Sanskrit's word (*r sometimes becomes /l/ in
> Sanskrit). It is also the origin of the English word "red",
> French "rouge", Spanish /rota/, et cetera ad nauseum.
>
> Also, though I'm no expert on Munda, you might be interested in
> Sumerian /urud/ "copper". The "red/copper" word appears to be
> a wanderword originating from Neolithic times.
>
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> >
> >Iron/Copper: *luan (Sora-Gorum); luan (Kharia), "Earlier, the
> >apparent similarity of luan with Indo-Aryan words meaning `iron'
> >(Sanskrit `loha', copper/iron, basically `red (dish) etc.) led us
to
> >believe (prematurely) that *luan, though admittedly problematic,
must
> >have been borrowed. In Mon-Khmer we have possible cognates in Old
Mon
> >siu_y, `copper' and Khmer luy, `money, small change' (these from
> >Shorto, personal communication), and Paul benedict (personal
> >communication) reconstructs for his Austro-Tal *lu(y)an, `copper'.
> >
> >ARK and Zide, NH, 1976, Proto-Munda cultural vocabulary: evidence
for
> >early agriculture. In: Jenner, PN, Thompson, IC and Starosta, S.,
> >eds., Austro-Asiatic Studies part II, pages 1295-1334. Oceanic
> >Linguistics Special Publication 13, Honolulu.
> >
> >
>
>
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