I feel tempted to separate *k^alk- 'gravel,
pebble' (Lat. calx, calculus, Skt. s'arkara-) from *kar- (with extensions:
*kar-s-, *kar-p-, *kar-k- ~ krak-, kar-k(a)r-, ...) meaning 'hard' (Gmc.
*xardu- < *kar-tú-, Skt. karkara-); 'stone, rock' (e.g. *kars- > *karr- in
Celtic); 'crab, crawfish ...' (*kar-kr-o- ~ *kan-kr-o-, *kar-k-ino-). It
is _hard_ to say whether this *kar- was a real "root" or just a
phonaesthetic sequence (cf. various 'scratch, notch, carve' roots like
*skerbH-/*gerbH-, *ker- 'cut, etc.).
Albanian karpë 'rock' (< *karpa:) shows
the characteristic -p- extension which recurs in the geographical names of the
Carpathian region. The mountains themselves were called <karpate:s oros>
by Ptolemy, and the North Carpathian Getae were the Carpi (Karpoi, Karpianoi,
Karpo-Dakoi) 'those who live in the rocky mountains'.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, March 14, 2002 9:20 AM
Subject: [tied] rock
Reading the debate about Daci I noticed that
Albanian for ´rock´ is ´carpa´ (I think). I would assume that this is cognate
with Latin ´calc-´ (again I think it´s the correct form) , Welsh ´craig´ (rock)
and ´carreg´ (stone). Interestingly Welsh has also ´sialc´ (´chalk´ from
English) and ´calch´ (´lime´ from Latin) but what is the proposed PIE
reconstruction and what are its reflexes in other languages. I would be
interested in toponymic forms as well.