Re: [tied] Re: *-pn/m-/-b(h)n/m- > Alb. /m/

----- Original Message -----
From: "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2005 7:19 AM
Subject: Re: [tied] Re: *-pn/m-/-b(h)n/m- > Alb. /m/


> tgpedersen wrote:
>
> > How would you analyse Sanskrit 'ambu' "water"?
>
> I don't know. The root *nebH- 'moisten' occurs in the pan-IE -es-stem
> *nebHos 'cloud, mist, sky', in *n.bH-ró- 'cloud, rain' (Lat. imber, RV
> abHrá-, LAv. aBra-, etc.), and in other derivatives including LAv.
> napta- 'moist, wet', but <ambu-> doesn't match this word-family. It
> doesn't seem to be related to the *h2ap- etymon either. It's a
> relatively late word (MBh.), perhaps from a non-IE substrate.

***
Patrick:

My own supposition is that *nebh- is derived from a prototype *ng^ebh-, seen
in Egyptian qb, 'cool'.

In zero-grade, *NG.bh-ró; restored incorrectly to *nebh- from a zero-grade
model.

If -*ú also produced a zero-grade *NG.bh-ú-, I suspect that this might have
resulted in

1) first, assimilation: *M.bh-ú-; and

2) a prothetic vowel: *ambhú-.

In my opinion, there is, at least, a possibility that the word-family of
*nebh- is the source.

***