On Sat, 05 Jun 2004 17:34:51 -0700 (PDT),
enlil@... wrote:
>Miguel:
>> And yet, it means "roof" everywhere except in Celtic (Grk.
>> (s)tege: "roof", Lat. te:ctum (> techo, toit) "roof", Gmc.
>> þak, thatch, dak, Dach "roof", Lith. stógas "roof", We. to
>> "roof", ty (< tig) "house", OIr. tech "house").
>
>And yet, one says "he has a roof over his head" (aka "he has
>a home to live in").
That doesn't make "roof" synonymous with "house".
>Look, this is definitely hairsplitting.
>The etymology of 'roof'
The ultimate PIE etymology of "roof" (OE/ON hro:f
"boatshed", Du. roef "deckhouse", connected either to Celtic
MIr. cro: "stall, hovel", We. craw "stall" [if *k^ra:p-] or
to Slavic stropa "roof" [if *k^rop- ~ *k^ro:p-]) is unclear.
>shows that it's original meaning is
>specifically 'shelter'
If you're talking about *(s)teg-, then clearly you haven't
looked at the cognate set of the root. It doesn't mean
"shelter" anywhere, so there is no basis for claiming if
meant "specifically" shelter.
The original meaning was "to cover": Skt. sthagayati
"covers, hides", Grk. stego: "I cover, protect", steganos
"covering; covered, hidden", etc., with nominal formations
meaning "roof", and "item of clothing" (Lat. toga, OIr.
e:-tach, ON staka, taka, etc.).
>which can most certainly mean 'roof'
>but in no way precludes its use as 'home' as well in any
>language branch.
It is the normal word for "house" only in Celtic. Basque
-tegi is therefore a loan from Celtic. Not only because the
word is only Celtic in the specific meaning of "house", but
also because the Basque speaking area (i.e. Aquitania) was
completely surrounded by Celtic speakers before the Roman
conquest, so another source of pre-Roman Indo-European loans
into Basque is extremely unlikely in any case. Yes, a word
meaning "roof" might have developed into the normal word for
"house" in another, unknown branch of Indo-European, and
this unknown language might have somehow been in contact
with Basque, and Basque might have borrowed *tegi from that
language instead of borrowing it from their Celtic
neighbours, who we know for a fact used it in this specific
meaning. Such an "Alexian" scenario is imaginable, but I
see no reason to take such hairsplitting seriously.
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...