Re: [tied] decem

Etymologies explaininng "Decebalus" as 'ten swords', 'tenfold strength' (quasi Skt. das'a-bala-) or even 'ten dicks' (assuming that <-balus> = pHallos) seem to me to be a bit on the fanciful side. My personal suspicion is that <-balus> = Gaul. -valos 'chief, prince', and that the first element is Celtic too: *dek-/*deg- 'good, worthy, suitable' < PIE *dek^- 'accept', cf. OIr. dech 'best', Lat. decus, decet, dignus, Skt. das'as-, etc.). A 'worthy chief', then?

Piotr

----- Original Message -----
From: "alex_lycos" <altamix@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 09, 2003 12:27 PM
Subject: [tied] decem


> Lat : decem
> Sanskrit: daçam
> Greek : deka
> Gothic : thaihun
> Ahd : zehan
>
> Tomascheck ask himself regarding the name of Dekebalos and Dekeneus if
> they are comming from the same PIE Root *dek'-
>
> " Falls wir darin eher ein Nom. ag. zu 'dekonai'oder ein Neutrum , wie
> Lat. 'decus', skr. 'daças' suchen , so schlägt dies die thrakische
> çatam-Theorie über den Haufen."
>
> Of course, what I try now is simple speculation since I have nothing
> which will show " so is this".
> I don't know if in Albanian is usual to make compounds of numerals and
> other nouns. In Romanian is not unusual like "Sapte-Sate" = "Seven
> Villages", "Sapte-Cai"= "Ten Horses", "Patru Frati"= "Four Brothers"
> etc. If in Albanian is the same situation then we can try to think about
> the name of Decebalus as "ten swords". Not just trough Romanian view but
> trough Albanian too if the last one allows such compounds. The second
> problem in Albanian is the "ke" versus "të". I don't know if is possible
> to make this change in Albanian , something like the shibboleth in Rom.
> of "pi/bi" versus "ki/ghi" ( piatra/k'iatra,bivol/g'ivol).Or maybe is
> this a regular development in Albanian , kind PIE "k'e" > "të"?
> How I said, it is just speculation and based on "ten" and the fact that
> "p"="b" and in both languages the word "pallë/paloS" means "sword"
> Albanian "ten"=dhjetë
> Romanian "ten"=zece
> Albanian "saber"= pallë
> Romanian "saber"= paloS
> Teh actually forms should be:
> in Rom. deke-balos > "zece-paloSe"
> in Rlb. deke-balos > "dhjetë-palla"