Re: nakha 'nail' in sanskrit

If *nagha- > *nakha- was an common Indo-Iranian innovation (as it
might well be -- note that both the Indo-Aryan and the
Iranian "heart" words go back to < *Z'Hrd- [as though < *g^Hrd-]
rather than *c'rd-), then the Iranian reflexes are as expected.
Dravidian loans into Proto-IIr can be safely ruled out.

Piotr

--- In cybalist@..., liberty@... wrote:
> Here's a quote from a book that I have, "The Avestan Hymn to
> Mithra":
>
> "Perhaps some progress can be made with the help of Oss. nyx
> `forehead, front, finger-nail, claw', which Miller connected
> with Ved. nakhá, Gr. ónyx, etc. This is one of the few cases
> where O.Ir. a is represented by (Iron) y, (Digor) i, before a
> consonant other than n (see Miller, Ossetisch, 18). It is
> noteworthy that Ossetic has a verb nyxyn (Dig. nixun) `to
> scratch', which may be a denominative of nyx `finger-nail',
> but has a past stem nyxt-, as if from O.Ir. *nixt- (or, just
> possibly, *naxt-). Within Iranian nyx stands out as the only
> representative of the word for `finger-nail' which, admitting
> the change of a to i, coincides with Ved. nakhá. Elsewhere in
> Iranian we find forms that go back to either O.Ir. *naxar-,†
> or *naxaka-,‡ or *na:xan-§."
>
> Is a Dravidian origin for nakhá- possible if the root is common
> Indo-Iranian? Are there any Dravidian loan-words in East-Iranian?