Re: [tied] Re: *pot-

On Mon, 21 Feb 2005 11:05:56 +0100, Piotr Gasiorowski
<gpiotr@...> wrote:

>
>On 05-02-20 18:03, Miguel Carrasquer wrote:
>
>> Are we sure it's not ekHi:dna? The normal treatment after
>> /i/ is to lengthen the vowel (ekHidnia > ekHijdna =
>> ekHi:dna).
>
>I know of no evidence either way. At least, it isn't *ekHi:na -- that
>is, the stop is there, whatever has happened to the glide. The analogy
>of <potna> (not *poitna) makes me think that the glide in such cases was
>dropped rather than matathesised.
>
>>>It looks as if the *-tn- had undergone irregular simplification in
>>><despoina> after all. Cf. the very early reduction of *-pt- to -p- in
>>>compounds like <aigupios> (cf. Skt. r.ji-pyá-), not found in simplex words.
>>
>>
>> -pio-/-pya- from *peth2- "fly"?
>
>Yeah, 'swift-winged', like Lat. accipiter (cf. Gk. argos or argi-pous
>'swift(-footed)' as an epithet of dogs, and "Macedonian" argiopous
>'eagle'), What else can it be?

Well, I checked in Boissacq and Pokorny, and both say it's
"unclear". Boissacq rejects Curtius' proposal ois + gups =
lämmergeier. Pokorny says the second element is "unclear"
(and the first is either *arg(r)os "swift" or *(H)reg^-
"straight", volksetymologisch umgestalted because of aix.

I don't really associate vultures with swiftness, but the
meaning may have shifted from a swifter bird of prey to what
it is in Greek.

>> If it had been reduced even further, -pt- (< *pj-) would
>> have been restored in Greek...
>
>... making Aigyptos an ornithological folk etymology after all :) ?

They sure used a lot of vultures in writing :-)


=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...