From: Patrick Ryan
Message: 40183
Date: 2005-09-20
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rob" <magwich78@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, September 19, 2005 3:17 PM
Subject: [tied] Re: Apple
--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Daniel J. Milton" <dmilt1896@...>
wrote:
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Rob" <magwich78@...> 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 *m�xlom, from *mex-
> > 'provide, feed, nurture'.
> *******
> I can't find such a *mex- in Pokorny or Watkins. Probably just
> overlooking some variant.
> Rob, can you expand?
> Dan Milton
It may be present in *méxte:r 'mother' if it originally
meant 'provider, nurturer'. We should see either *mxté:r or *méxto:r
here; the likely reason we don't is because the other parental term,
*pxté:r 'father', was reanalyzed from *px-ter- to *p-xter-; its
acquired kinship significance allowed the apparent ending to be
generlized for kinship terms.
If the root is in Pokorny at all, it would be under *ma:-.
- Rob
***
Patrick:
The evidence for *ma:te:r meaning 'nurser' is so overwhelming I cannot
believe anyone speculating 'provider' or 'nurturer'.
***