Re: [tied] -st

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...>
wrote:

> On 04-10-30 12:14, tgpedersen wrote:
> >
> >
> > It seems that apart from Skt. 'ni:d.á', the IE (*ni "down" +
> > *sd "sit" >) *nizdo "nest" word is exclusively Germanic, Italic

and

> > Celtic.
>
> It also ocurs in Balto-Slavic, albeit with the first element

distorted

> in various (folk-etymological?) ways: Lith. lizdas, Slavic *gne^zdo
> (instead of expected *nIzdo-). Plus an impeccable cognate in

Armenian

> (<nist> 'site, dwelling'), making it a widely distributed IE word.

An n-/gn- alternation together with the *s-d- root, aha. So maybe the
two phenomena belong to the same donor language, which would be a
Nordwestblock one (given the place names in -st).

>

> > Makes one wonder if the frequent -st suffix of Nordwestblock
> > names is also zero grade of *s-d- (for semantics, cf
> > Russian 'sosed' "neighbour"). In that case, those names should be

IE

> > Nordwestblock, or?
>
> *-st(h2)ó-/*st(h2)i- can be the compositional zero-grade of *stah2-
> 'stand' in some words. Cf. Skt. dvistHá- 'ambiguous' (= 'standing

in two

> places'), duHstHá- 'miserable' (= Gk. dustos), and many other

similar

> compounds.

And Møller has
Semitic s-t-
Hebrew s^e:T
Arabic 'istuN "buttocks"
single redupl s-t-t-
Herbrew 3 pl perf s^áttu:
with n-preformative
n-s-t- "versiegen" (sink into the ground, of water)
+ h-
Arabic satahuN, sathuN, pl. 'asta:huN "buttocks"

Given the area we are discussing, I think Vennemann would rejoice.

> I have once proposed on this list that the various '(song)
> thrush' words, a difficult set usually reduced to the prototype
> *trosdos, could actually derive from something like *dru-sd-o- with
> early dissimilatory reshapings (understandable in a secondary root

with

> two mediae), i.e. 'tree-sitter', from the bird's habit of singing

from a

> prominent treetop perch.
>

Or a North European loan getting a double whammy of Grimm. Are there
cognates outside Germanic?

Torsten