Re: Crows and Garlands

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski
<piotr.gasiorowski@...> wrote:

> 19-08-03 20:26, Richard Wordingham wrote:
>
>
> > Are we just looking at a coincidence here? I too was skeptical
> > until I looked at these entries.
> >
> > We have similar sets in Latin:
> >
> > _corn-i:x_, _-i:kis_ f. 'crow' and _cornu:_ horn
> >
> > _corv-us_, _-i:_ (m.) 'raven', '(military) grapnel';
> > _curv-us_ 'bent, curved, crooked' (and the verb

_curvare_ 'curve,

> > bend, arch');
> > _cerv-us_, -i: (m.) 'stag, deer';
> > _cerv-i:x_, _-i:cis_ (f.) 'neck'.
> >
> > On the other hand, there doesn't seem to be any connection

between

> > the multi-stemmed Greek _keras_ (n.) 'horn' and corvids.
>
> The 'horn, antler, head' etymon is definitely different from the

corvid

> set, and involves *k^, not *k; more precisely, it's *k^r.-n- or
> *k^er-h2-, with ablaut variants and further extensions (a rather

large

> family of words). I wouldn't exclude a secondary folk-etymological
> rapprochement between the two etyma in individual centum branches.

*k-? Pokorny (root #919) has a nice set of 'magpie' words, e.g.
Sanskrit _sa:rika:_ 'Indian magpie' (read on before objecting
to /s/!), seemingly also _s'a:rika:_ and s'a:ri:, Lithuanian s^árka,
Russian soroka 'magpie', Armenian _sareak_ 'starling'. Albanian
_sorrë_ (if I interpret Starostin's copy correctly) 'crow' may
complicate matters, as it is derived from *k^we:rna:. *k could
derive from onomatopoeic reshaping in Satem languages, as you have
pointed out with regard to 'cuckoo'.

Richard.