I don't quite believe in *s^ek^Wo- as a
possible protoform of <hippos>. No labiovelars have ever been
reconstructed for Uralic, Finno-Ugric or Baltic Finnic; nor is *k/*p alternation
known in any of these groups, as far as I know. The distribution of the cognates
of <hevonen> rules out a recent borrowing. I will check whatever
references I can find, but I'd be surprised if any arguable connection, no
matter how remote, could exist between *h1ek^Wo- or <hippos> and <hepo,
hevos-/hevonen>. It's one of those coincidences that may look uncanny but
must be expected to occur from time to time. I'm pretty sure, though, that
Finnish kavio, Votic kabja, Estonian kabi 'hoof' reflect an IE
loan.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2001 2:43 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Finnish hevonen "horse"
I know very little about Uralic phonetic equations,
but Finnish *h < Uralic *s^? Was there labiovelars in Finnish (or perhaps
Balto-Finnic?) Could point to a *s^ekWo-/s^ikWo- > Greek hippos,
Baltic-finnic *hepo- ? I've already pointed to odd resemblance between the names
of the titans KOIOS and PHOIBE: and Finnish Kuu and Paiva "moon" and
"sun".