From: Rob
Message: 40916
Date: 2005-09-30
> A detailed refutation of Lubotsky (1989) etymology of *k^as-o- isYou make a good case here, Piotr. If I may, I'd like to try to link
> perhaps in order. He reconstructs the PIE colour stem as *k^h1ei-,
> assuming it to be an extension of *k^eh1- 'grey', for which the
> only evidence given in the article is Skt. *s'a:rá- 'motley,
> spotted' and Gk. ke^rulos, a fabulous sea-bird (no precise
> description available). The evidence is dubious, to say the least,
> and so it's hard to accept the reality of *k^eh1- in the first
> place. As for the extended *k^h1ei-, he needs the *h1 next to the
> initial stop to account for Slavic *s^- < *x- (BTW, the theory that
> *h1 causes the aspiration of a preceding stop anywhere in IE is
> Lubotsky's personal and controversial opinion, not necessarily
> shared by other IEists). However, the Slavic adjectives *s^e^rU and
> *s^e^dU can both be loans from early Germanic (from, respectively,
> *xaira- 'grey' and *xaida- 'bright, shining'). Note that the latter
> (and possibly the former as well) is a likely cognate of Skt. ketú-
> 'brightness' (no aspiration!) and thus has nothing to do with
> the 'brown, grey, dark' root *k^jeh1- (sic!) as visible in Skt.
> s'yá:va- and, among others, Slavic *sivU and *sinU < *k^ih1-wo-,
> *k^ih1-no-. Even assuming a secondary (anti-samprasarana) full
> grade *k^eih1- to account for Celtic *keiro- 'dark brown' we don't
> get anything that could be used to support Lubotsky's 'hare'
> etymology. Laryngeal metathesis doesn't happen right-to-left, and
> there's no chance that *k^jeh1- could be an extension of **k^eh1-
> rather than **k^ei-. I rest my case, m'lud.