S/Cr roda means 'stork' (the "heron" word
is <c^aplja> < *c^e^p-ja). I don't know its etymology, but *ard- is out
of the question (*orC-, *arC- > *raC- in South Slavic).
I don't think the "crane" etymon had a
more general meaning in PIE. The *ger(h2)- words (gru:s, geranos, crane, geran,
z^eravI, gerve., kr.unk, etc.) mean "crane" virtually everywhere with remarkable
consistency. There are different word-forming suffixes, perhaps even compounds
(if my guess about *ger[h2?]-h2wi- can be accepted), but no confusion with other
wading birds.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, November 17, 2001 1:36 AM
Subject: Re: [tied] Slavic water birds
Could we suppose that the word for crane originally
meant "large pernalt bird, crane, stork, heron"?
There was etymologies for Latin ardea "heron",
linking it to SerboCroatian roda < PIE
*ard-?