Re: [tied] Origin of Demeter

From: Miguel Carrasquer
Message: 28953
Date: 2003-12-30

On Tue, 30 Dec 2003 01:45:08 +0000, Glen Gordon <glengordon01@...>
wrote:

>Yes, yes, *de: means "earth"... but from what language??

Pokorny connects it with Alb. dhe "earth":

alb. dhe 'Erde' (= khthó:n); vgl. gr. De:mé:te:r, dor. Da:má:te:r, Thess.
Dammáte:r, Aeol. Do:máte:r; Illyr. Do:-, Dam- (Pisani IF 53, 30, 38) aus
idg. *g^ðo:, bzw. Vokat. *g^ðom; über Damía, Beiwort der Demeter, s. WH. I
321;

But since <dhe> must go back to a pronunciation /3^o:/ or /3^ø:/, I doubt
it would have been borrowed in Greek as *Da:.

Speaking of bywords for Demeter, there is also De:ó: (G. De:oûs), an
oy-stem (*da:-o:y-s, *da:-oy-os). This might point to the root *dah2i-
(Grk. daiomai "to divide, distribute", daimo:n "daemon", de:mos "people").


=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...