Re: [tied] Mare [was: substratum]

26-06-03 09:24, g wrote:

> 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.

It is as it should be. Seldeslachts's Hungarian source is B. Sulán
(1961) "Semasiologische Betrachtunen" (_Acta Linguistica Academiae
Hungaricae_ 11). Sulán shows that we are dealing with a zoological
metaphor (in many species the male is larger than the female), so a
meaning like 'boar, buck' (Sulán's 'Männchen') is perfectly all right.
The use of <kan> for <nagy> is reported from the River Szamos (Some$)
area. Seldeslachts speaks of a Romanian/Hungarian "parallel" and
refrains from further speculation, but of course the shared association
may well be an areal thing.

Piotr