Brian M. Scott wrote:
> At 1:33:12 PM on Sunday, June 29, 2003, alex wrote:
>
>> Miguel Carrasquer wrote:
>
>>> Avestan sp&nta-, Lithuanian s^ventas, Slavic sveNtU point
>>> to PIE *k^wentos and nothing else.
>
>>> Avestan Lithuanian Slavic
>>> PIE *sw- xv- sv- sv-
>>> PIE *k^w- sp- s^v- sv-
>
>> an *swentos shouldn't make any trouble in satem space ,
>> would it?
>
> Yes. It's right in front of you.
>
> Brian
>
Oh. I bet you mean that *k^v > sp in Avestan as _one of the changes_
which can happen;In the same manner *sw > xv in Avestan is too just _one
of several_ possibilities who can occure. I am sure Miguel is aware of
the other renderings of pie *k^w and PIE *sw in Avestan, he showed just
the *k^w > sp and *sw > xv here.
Thus the trouble is not in front of me Brian. The trouble is indeed
Avestan but not because *sw > xv. The trouble is that among all changes
which happen in Avestan from an PIE *sw there is _never_ an "sp". That
is the real trouble and for this the *swentos is not matching.
the PIE *k^wentos meant "feiern, heiligen" thus from here the meaning of
"holy". In avestan the word "spenta" was translated as:
speñta [-]
(I) prosperous (Hum2 172); holy, beneficent (HZI 196), bountiful;
prosperity increasing; (ahm157:) incremental, whose activity results in
increase (beneficial?) (k547)
Slavic and Baltic has just the meaning "holy".
Pokorny see too just in Baltic , Slavic and Avestan the reflexes of pie
*k^wen
Now the expresion "speñtâ-mainyûm" meant in Avestan "Beneficient Spirit"
and was related to the christian terminology "Holy Spirit". It seems the
meaning of avestan word was in fact "beneficient" and not "holy".
In Baltic (in Lithuanian)in the dictionary I could consulte is
"sventas"(holy) adj. I could not find any verb or noun but it means just
I could not find, not that there cannot be a verb or a noun; it can be,
I need a better dictionary.
Now, how can be explained the sense of "feiern" given by Pokorny?
More, how can develops the meaning from holy to sunset? This is an
interesting qustion since the Rom. "asfinTit" (sunset) and the verb " a
asfinTi" ( to decline, mostly about sun see sunset) is given as "a"+
"sfânt"(holy).
Alex