Rob:
> Personally, I'm inclined to view *kap- as a
> loanword.
Based on what? The default view would be that *qep-
(or *kap-, if you insist, blech!) is a native word
until evidence surfaces showing the source of the
loan. You have not supplied this evidence and so
the default theory applies: *qep- is a native stem.
> Surely it's at least *possible* for IE to have
> acquired loanwords before it broke apart into
> dialects.
Yes, in fact, some words have been identified in
this respect, if I recall, mostly involving the
satem shift and the interaction of neighbouring
satem and non-satem dialects.
However, the onus is on you to show that *qep- has
more involved etymology, whether it be due to
mingling post-IE dialects, or loaning from para-IE
dialects/Semitic/NWC/NEC/Kartvelian/etc.
So far, I deem it to be native, which implies in my
theory that the e-grade is secondary. It predicts
that *qep- dates only to early Late IE. Before
Syncope (where *k and *q appear to be allophones
based on other considerations), the MIE stem behind
this must first have been in the stative a-grade:
*kap-. Then again, Piotr mentioned *qo:pax didn't
he, which could very well derive from the pre-Vowel-
Shift a-grade form. Hmmm.
But that's just my theory. It would be tasty if I
found a Uralic, Etruscan or Altaic counterpart to link
it to an earlier Proto-Steppe **kap- or **kop-.
= gLeN
__________________________________
Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005
http://mail.yahoo.com