Re: horst, karst

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:

>
> German <Horst>, Engl. <hurst> (supposedly different ablaut
> grades) "elevated wooded terrain(?)" have no proper Germanic
> etymology, I was wondering if there was a connection with German
> Karst "water-eroded rocky landscape", Croatian and Slovene <Kras>
> (note it does have metathesis), Italian <Carso>, from the name of a
> landscape in Slovenia. The wovels are short, so I would have to
> conclude: "/o/ normal IE ablaut vocalism, /a/ from Nordwestblock
> (migrated south)".
>
> Kuhn mentions -st- as an 'Old European' suffix in placenames, so I
> thought...? (Another example would be ON <naust> 'boathouse', the
> *naw- 'boat' root occurs otherwise in ON only in Noa-tun.) But the -

t

> might be added later, as in <Axt>, <jetzt> etc.
>
> Torsten

This Karst is a clear substratum item, from a widespread root /kar-/ -
/gar-/ "rock, stone", found also in Basque /harri/. Nothing to do
with IE.

Regards

Marco