Re: substratum

>I wrote about that pair yesterday. I don't believe they are related (but
>yes, <madh> is related to Gk. mega, Skt. maha-, Eng. mickle/much, etc.;
>its <dh> is a reflex of *g^).

Oh, I see, thank you.

>See:
>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/23793

BTW, I wasn't aware of this:

>Herman Seldeslachts (1999)
>notes that "in Hungarian, words like <kan> 'male' and <fiú> 'boy' can be
>used to qualify big objects, whereas on the other hand <leány> 'girl'
>and <no"stény> 'female' can denote smaller objects [...]

But I'm skeptical about <kan>. The Hung. word for "male" is <hím>
[hi:m], while <kan> is a "boar" (and <kandur> [kOndur] a "tomcat").
I assume therefore the meaning "male" in <kan> to be either primeval
or dialectal. I'd investigate if Hungarians coexisting with Romanians
for centuries in Eastern Greater Hungary ever had the notion
"male" -> "big", i.e. if the Transdanubian subdialectal occurrence
was valid in the opposite extreme of the former Hungarian kingdom.

>Piotr

George