[tied] Re: An odd etymology

>
> > All under the assumption that the word is a bona fide IE word and

has

> made the trip all the way from PIE in all branches. Note Basque
> <aizkora>. If it's a loan word, these inconsistencies suddenly look
> acceptable.
>
> Once you start permuting segments at will, anything can be made to

look like

> almost anything else. Basque <aizkora> is SIMILAR to many other

things, e.g.

> to Polish siekiera < *sekyra and Latin secu:ris (s-k-r), both

meaning 'axe'.

> How do you decide which (if any) of two or more competing but

mutually

> exclusive similarity-based proposals is preferable?
>

That's the way it is with loanwords. Of course you'll have to stay
within limits given by plausible phonetic changes when proposing
cognacy for loanwords, but that's a matter of taste, and there's
nothing I can do about that, I'm afraid. The axe ~ aizkora
correspondencxe is Vennemann's idea. The correspondence with Latin
secu:ris I haven't seen before, but it seems promising; Vennemann had
trouble explaing the -kora part. Does your (s-k-r) mean you suspect a
Semitic loan (plain /k/'s make me suspicious)?

Torsten