Re: [tied] bison

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer <mcv@...> wrote:

> Perhaps. In Old Polish, zaNbrz was used for "tiger" (modern Polish
> z.ubr has irregular z^- for z- [Mazurian dialect?] and -/u/- for
> -/oN/- [East Slavic?]).
> Except for Russian dialectal <izubr> with i-,

Actually, <iz'ubr'> 'deer Cervus elaphus'.

> the other Slavic forms point to *zoNbrU (or *zoNbrI), which could

be a

> regular adjectival formation from *g ^ombhos "tooth", *g^ombh-ros
> "toothy, toothed". However, the word also occurs in Baltic, and the
> initial there does not correspond with Slavic z-: Latv. sumbrs,

su:brs

> or subrs with s-, Lith. stum~bras with st-...

If related to Slavic *zo,brU, the Lithuanian form may be influenced
by a Baltic counterpart of Germanic *steuraz 'ox' (OE ste:or 'steer')
< *(s)th2eu-ro- (?). If not, it could well be a continuation of *(s)
th2eu-ro- with -m- from, say, stu~mti 'push' and merely phonetical -b-
(-mr- > -mbr-).

Just a loose speculation.

Sergei