From: tgpedersen
Message: 29156
Date: 2004-01-06
> Richard:relate to
> >This challenges the etymology Latin _fa:num_ 'sanctuary' < *fasnom
> >f. *dHe:s, *dH&s 'root used in religious terms' (Pokorny root
> >#409). There are Italic cognates Oscan _fi/i/snam_ (I'm not sure
> >what the slashes in on-line Pokorny mean here) 'temple' and the
> >Umbrian expression _fesnafe_ translated into Latin as 'in fanum'.
>
> Alright, but I have questions. Why *fasnom? Why not *fesnom?
> How did we get /a:/ and not /e:/? Why did the *s disappear? I
> understand that *ni-sd-os becomes /nidus/, but only because *s
> came to be pronounced with its voiced allophone [z]. If we
> have Oscan /fíísnam/ with [e] AND "s", it seems like a far cry from
> Latin /fa:num/ with [a:] and no trace of "s".
>
> Of course, I don't think I can dare deny *dHes- as a valid IE root
> for Latin /festus/ and Greek /theos/, but what I'm saying is that
> perhaps the etymology of Latin /fa:num/ isn't as straight-forward
> as previously thought.
>
> Looking at Tyrrhenian languages, there is of course Minoan *ipinam
> (VRY Za 1, KO Za 1), sometimes in the genitive *ipinam-na (PK Za 11)
> which I have an itch to translate as something like "holy" with an
> accompanying verb *siru-te. There is no attested Etruscan *fanum
> afaik per se, but we can suspect that there is because of /fan-u/,
> /fan-us'e/, /fan-us'ei/, /fan-eri/, /fan-iri/ all appearing to
> "ritual" and showing a productive native root /fan-/. So perhapswould
> Latin /fa:num/ is in fact based on a common Tyrrhenian root *afen-,
> becoming *ipin- in Minoan and *fen- in EtruscoCypriot (because of
> strong quasi-initial accent). There is also Rhaetic /paniun/ which I
> surmise to be ritual offerings of some kind. Afterall, what else
> the Rhaetic write about? :)According to Tacitus, the Marsi with other peoples [all Nordwestblock
>