Re: [tied] Re: PIE nit, louse's egg

Phonological deformation were so common in insects' names.
Cf. *plus- "flea" > Latin pu:lex (*pusl-), Greek psylla (*psul-), Slavic
bluxa (*blus-), Germanic flauha- (*plouk-).

----- Original Message -----
From: <markodegard@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, October 19, 2001 2:54 AM
Subject: [tied] Re: PIE nit, louse's egg


> EIEC gives *k^(o)nid-
>
> Adams writes in "Louse", p. 357:
> --start quote--
> "Though its exact PIE shape is difficult to reconstruct because of its
> various descendants have undergone phonological deformation of one
> sort or another, this word seems clearly to have been originally
> pan-IE."
> --end quote--
>
> Yes, this is the ancestor of English 'nit'. The PIEs seems to have
> been a pretty lousy folk, overall.
>
>
> --- In cybalist@..., "João S. Lopes Filho" <jodan99@...> wrote:
> > What's the PIE for louse's egg, nit?
> >
> > Latin lens
> > Latvian gni~da
> > Lithuanuan glinda
> > Irish sned, gnit
> > Welsh nedd
> > Grk konis "dust"
> > OE hnitu = OHG hniz < PGerm *hnito:
> > Albanian theni
> > Armenian anic
> > Russian gnida (Other Slavic equivalents?)
> >
> > It seems to exist a lot of corrupted variations of the same base.
> > I'd try to explain Latin as
> >
> > *gnNd- (or knNd-) > gnend- > nend-> dissimilation > lend-. PIE
> *gnNd- (or knNd-) can explain Latvian, Lithuanina (dissimilated)
> > Other words point to a *gnid-.
> > Greek, Germanic and Albanian point to a *k^nid-.
>
>
>
>
>
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