--- Piotr Gasiorowski <
piotr.gasiorowski@...>
wrote:
I
> don't even trust the
> Iranian etymology of *mogyla, because I can't
> evaluate it for myself
> until I see the details of that proposal.
>
> Piotr
*****GK: The main meaning of mogila/mohyla today (at
least in the East Slavic languages AFAIK is simply
"grave, tomb". It coexists in Ukr. (am not sure about
Russ. and Belar.) with "hrib" (the same as grob
elsewhere). The other meanings are still there in Ukr.
(kurgan/burial mound, hillock --- I haven't found
"heap" though). I gather that Polish "mogila" is
primarily a literary word (knyzhna nazva). One
interesting thing: we know from extant Slavic texts
that in the 14th and 15th c. the main meanings of the
word in Moldavia were "kurgan" and "hill", but it
seems that only the second sense made it into the
Romanian language (?)=== I'll see if I can find any
archaeological evidence that might be helpful here.
Clearly "kurgans" (of all sizes--I'll check this)
existed in Eastern Europe from the late IVth
millennium BC (after all the "Kurgan culture" and all
that,eh?) But the evidence of many other languages
would suggest that they were not referred to by the
"m" word. I've not checked everything (just the online
Baltic dictionaries) but I'm sure Piotr would have
mentioned Sanskrit or Old Persian words. And David's
note about Ossetian (the heir of Alanic) also seems
significant.********
>
>
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