There are some striking correspondances between the
phonenemics of many core elements in uralic and
indoeuropean. You can easyly see them by comparing
proto-indo-european elements with the corresponding
finnish (finnish is so conservative that such a
comparison can be done meaningfully).
IE Ur
I/me me mi-nu
you te-we si-nu<ti-nu
this/that/it so/to se/tuo/t�-
ablative case suffix es/ed ta
accusative suffixe sg m m
Nom pl suffixe s t
1. p sg suffixe m n<m
2. p sg suffixe s/tha t
1. p pl suffixe mo/me me
2. p pl suffixe te te
In both IE an and FU many elements have variants where
one element contains an -s- and the other a -t-. Where
IU has s/t, also FU often have s/s^/t.
The abowe examples illustrate very well this
correspondance.
In both the groups s/s^ tend to change into h in some
instances.
Therefore the word hevo-nen may very well be genetic
related to the greek word hippo-, but it could also be
a early loanworld from IU.
--- Piotr Gasiorowski <
gpiotr@...> wrote:
> I don't think it has a Uralic ancestor, but seems to
> be common Baltic-Finnic: Karelian heponi, Veps hebo,
> Votic op�n. Finnish hevonen is an expanded form of
> <hepo>, as far as I know, with the suppletive suffix
> <-nen/-s(e)->, e.g. gen.sg. <hevosen>, nom.pl.
> <hevoset> (in compounds we have <hevos->). Similarly
> in Estonian: hobu, hobune, gen.sg. hobuse, etc. I
> don't know its etymology, but any similarity to
> <hippos> can only be accidental. Any Uralic experts
> on the list?
>
> Piotr
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Jo�o S. Lopes Filho
> To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Monday, October 29, 2001 10:47 PM
> Subject: [tied] Finnish hevonen "horse"
>
>
> What;s the origin of Finnish hevonen "horse"? Any
> PUr etymology? Any link with hippos?
>
>
=====
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