Re: ka and k^a [was: [tied] *kW- "?"]

On Mon, 26 Sep 2005 16:42:08 +0200, Piotr Gasiorowski
<gpiotr@...> wrote:

>Miguel Carrasquer wrote:
>
>> As I have stated before, I believe that PIE */a/, where it
>> does not come from colouring by *h2 (*h2e > *a) or by
>> *k/*g/*gh (**qa > *ka), must come from a (pre-)PIE nasalized
>> long vowel */a:N/ before C (e.g. **(H)na:Ns > *(H)nas-,
>> **g^ha:Ns- > *g^ha(n)s, **dha:Nbh- > *dhabh-, etc.)
>
>Then perhaps *k^as-, if from **k^a:N-s-, has something to do with
>*k^ank- ~ *k^a:k- 'rush, spring forth, leap', as in Gk. ke:kio:
>(ka:kio:) 'gush', Lith. s^ókti 'leap', and Gmc. *xanxistaz/*xangistaz
>'steed'.

So not named after the colour (hares aren't really grey
anyway, aren't they?), but after the jumping. Could very
well be.

>> The existence of a PIE /ai/-diphthong would seem to be an
>> embarassment, but the word *laiwos gave me an idea. What if
>> the original shape of the word was **la:ñ-wos (out of
>> earlier ***la:niwos or ***la:miwos), where the palatalized
>> /ñ/ nasalizes the preceding vowel, and itself gets reduced
>> to /j/? That would allow tying in the word *laiwos with the
>> root *lem-/*lom- "weak, lame", which makes an excellent
>> semantic fit.
>
>Interesting, though I suspect that the "adjectives of defect" with
>*a-cocalism form some kind of group, if only because of secondary
>contamination. If we admit k-colouring in *skaiwo- and *kaiko-, the
>vocalism of *laiwo- may have been the victim of "peer pressure".

Yes, there's that possibility. I still like the connection
with "lame" a lot (I had worked out the soundlaw *la:ñ-wos >
*lai-wos, _before_ checking in Pokorny if there even was an
IE root *lVN-, so imagine my surprise when the only such
root turned out to mean what it means).

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