David:
>I know nothing about Caucasian so I can't suggest a
>source, but Glen's posts about 'star' in Nostratic made
>me wonder if there might not be one.
When was that? My current thoughts on *xster- is that
it is indeed a derivative of *xeh- "to burn" and therefore
a native word. I believe now that *xster- was first coined
at the beginning of the Neolithic and was once pronounced
*xehstere in Mid IE (c.6000-5000 BCE) where *e is pronounced
as a mid-central schwa. The word would have been originally used
specifically for the planet and goddess "Venus". From there, I
surmise the religious term was transferred westward to neighbouring
Old Tyrrhenian as *Xastora (> Semitic `Athtar-), later becoming
*Attora by 3500 BCE once the language had spread across the eastern
Mediterranean coastline into Turkey (Etruscan Turan). The
Tyrrhenian reconstructions and surmisals are my own, by the way, so
you can take them or leave them.
I have no clue about Ossetic /st'aly/ but I doubt this has much
bearing on the origins of IndoEuropean *xster- since IE clearly
didn't have an ejective in this term, even if you factor in the
yucky Glottalic Theory.
- love gLeN
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