--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
>
>
>http://www.angelfire.com/rant/tgpedersen/bHrs.html
>http://www.angelfire.com/rant/tgpedersen/pld.html
>
>Single origin?
>Anyone care to comment?
As for me, the origin of *bHrs is single, and is Sumerian
bar-zil, "iron". Apparently this is a compound of Sumerian
bar, "white", "shining", and "zil", to cut. Sumerians were
unable to work this metal, but they know it as a meteoric
substance. From Sumerian the word was borrowed (very early)
into Proto-Semitic as /*P.rs/ or something similar.
In particular, Akkadian persillum was the source of some
forms found in two IE languages such as Latin ferrum and OE bræs.
We cannot reconstruct an IE bHrs, because this root is attested
scanty and has no other cognates in IE languages.
Latin ferrum < *bHersom, but this *bHersom is supspected to be of Etruscan
origin. Etruscan has other loanwords from AfroAsiatic langauges, such as
vinum, "wine", thevru, "bull", zich "book" (form Egyptian /zh_3/ "to write"
(later Kartvelian borrowed it from ProtoTyrrhenian, Georgian c.igni,
"book"), etc...
We cannot project in ProtoIE a form attested only in few western IE
languages or even an isolated one.
IE is not monolithic.
Old English bræs is a loanword from some pre-IE language spoken in the
Northern areas befor the arrival of Indoeuropeans. There are hundreds and
hundreds of germanic words with no known etymology, apparently ancient
substratum item. We cannot say that words like silver, drink, sheep, ship,
land are from IE roots.
Also *pld is quite interesting.
You have forgotten Basque berun, "lead" from Pre-Basque *belun.
It is another pre-IE substrate item. We cannot derive it from IE *bHlei-,
morphological details are too aberrant.
The word for "lead" from "to radiate" is like canis a non canendo, lucus a
non lucendo, aqua a qua juvamur.
I derive Latin plumbum and Celtin *loudon, *loudia: directly from Tyrrhenian
*plumdH-. Celtic *loud- < *plobd- < *plumdH-.
From the Mediterranean area these words spread into Asia, so we have
matchups in Proto-Hesperonesian, etc...
I hope my explanations will be of some help.
I would be happy to receive comments.
Greetings
Marco Moretti
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