From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 18689
Date: 2003-02-10
----- Original Message -----
From: "Che" <almogaver69@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, February 10, 2003 12:02 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Lupus
> Isn't eng. wolf rather related to lat. vulpes "fox"? Then isn't it actually kind of "wild dog"? And do we have here two developments from the same root 1. vulpes 2. (w)lupus?
Good ol' *wl.kWos accounts for Germanic *wulfaz quite well, especially as the corresponding feminine *wl.gWi:z (ON ylgr) < *wl.kW-íh2 is also attested, and the structure (a thematic masculine) matches the traditional 'wolf' etymon rather than any of the 'fox' words. The labiovelar~labial variation is found in non-Satem languages only, while *p in the 'fox' word is found consistently everywhere, Satem or Centum. This fact alone speaks against conflating the two etyma into a single 'canine' root with variants. I'd reconstruct PIE *wl.kWos with sporadic metathesis (> *lukWos) and sporadic labial assimilation (> *wl.pos, like *penkWe > *pempe > Gmc. *fimf-), the latter _never_ found in the Satem branches.
The 'fox' set is a hard one. It stands to reason that <vulpes> must be somehow related to Gk. aló:pe:ks, Skt. lopa:s'á- 'jackal', Iranian *raupasa-, Arm. aLue:s (leaving temporarily aside some enigmatic Balto-Slavic words that might or might not be related), but it's difficult to reduce these forms to a common prototype. Syncope (and/or the influence of the 'wolf' word) may have produced <vulpes> out of something like *olupe:s, but this is about as far as one can go without getting really Procrustean on the poor fox.
I think the most economic reconstruction (without assuming taboo distortions and other unverifiable tricks) would be a compound with the first element of the shape *lah2u- (with alternative composition forms *l.h2u- and *lh2w-o-):
*l.h2u-pe:k^-s > Pre-Lat. *olupe:ks > Lat. vulpe:s
(irregular loss of *k e.g. through misanalysis of vulpe:c-ula --> vulpe:-cula);
*lah2u-pe:k^-s > IIr. *raupa(:)C-a- (thematised);
*l.h2w-o-pe:k^-s > Pre-Gk. *alawope:ks > Gk. alo:pe:k-s .
The second element (*pek^-) might have something to do with Slavic *pIsU 'dog', and the first (*lah2u-) ..... any ideas?
Piotr