--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "grzegorj2000" <grzegorj2000@...>
wrote:
> And, with another metathesis: Latin ma:lum, Greek me:lon < *maHlo-,
> Hittite mahla- "grape-vine" (and maybe Slavic malina "raspberry"
> also belongs here).
Those could easily be from a native IE word *méxlom, from *mex-
'provide, feed, nurture'. In fact, the reflexes in the attested
languages are very clear: Slavic /a/ is from /a:/ or /o:/, and
Hittite preserves /h/. Is the -ina in Slavic _malina_ a diminutive
ending? If so, then the meaning "raspberry" can be understood to
come from "little apple".
I imagine that the semantic development of this word within IE means
that the IE-speakers originally came from an area where apples were
abundant. This means a temperate climate. Something tells me that
they are/were not common in Anatolia; hence its new meaning of "grape-
vine" in Hittite (wine cultivation came from Anatolia).
- Rob