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

-----Original Message-----
From: Piotr Gasiorowski [mailto:gpiotr@...]
Sent: Wednesday, November 07, 2001 2:12 AM
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: 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

 

And a very interesting one. It's hard to resist the charm of direct comparison as such. On the other hand, I can't identify that *wi- in other Baltic words (I'm ashamed to confess I can't identify the PIE root).

 

Sergei