Re: [tied] Galli:na aut o:uum

Carry on by all means, it's getting interesting. But the structure of the compound should be repaired, I think. The ablaut looks OK to me, but if the word were to mean "such-and-such bird", it would be head-final, i.e. "bird"-final in PIE (*X-h2wi-). *h2wi-sdah2/-sth2ah2 would translate, a bit absurdly, as "bird-sitter/stander".

I say, what about direct comparison with Skt. vis.t.Ha: (*wi-sth2-ah2) 'standing apart --> staying in one place, stationary' ("not flying away")? Just loose speculation :)

Piotr

----- Original Message -----
From: Sergejus Tarasovas

To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Wednesday, November 07, 2001 12:42 AM

Subject: Re: [tied] Galli:na aut o:uum

A brilliant idea have just occured to me: what if from *h2wi-sd-ah2 'sitting bird'. Faultless semantically, such etymology has its weak points: li`zdas 'nest' < *nisdos and probably even pizda`/pyzda` 'vagina' demostrate that Baltic would prefer regressive assimilation here, *sed- was inclined to pre-agglutinate prepositions rather than nominal roots, why two nil-grades (early generalization or -a'h2)? *h2wi-sth2-ah2 'standing bird' is more reliable formally, but rather unnatural semantically: a hen rather sits on the eggs like an active object rather than 'stands' being put there.