> I think that, despite the fact that I am very doubtful about
Orel's > etymologies, Alb. <bac> 'older brother' should be related
to Sl.
> bato 'id.' and belongs to childish words, even other form <brale>
is > closely related to PIE root for brother
Abdullah, seems that you have made 'an obsession with Orel's
etymologies'...please forget him/them/me at least for 5 minutes :)
and take a look 'in that interval':
1. to Fraenckel (is on-line on Leiden) (=>Lithuanian batis) or
2. to Vasmer (is on-line on Leiden too) (=> Slavic ба́тя) => 'to be
sure enough' "who said that" and to see that this root 'is a serious
one'....:)
With my previos message, I only wanted to say that there is 'no
need' to derive such an important root from 'a pointed stick' like
Romanian 'bãT' '(pointed) stick' is...
To fully quote you from your attached file:
<< *bak- `staff used for support'. 1. Alb. < baç> `broad woolen
strap used to keep a baby in a cradle or to carry heavy load',
probably from root *bak-, that, extended in -s *baks have yielded
PAlb. <baksh>. Probably the meaning of supporting staff was extended
later in <shepherd>, attested in Rom. baci `herdsman'>>
Now to come back on 'serious' terms: I don't think that we need to
link this root to a nursery word (even I saw (thanks, Dan) that also
English boy is considered a 'nursery' word). We have importants
cognates here that stand-up by themselves for a root *bheh2-
'(elder) brother. close relative' (with extensions < *bheh2-t/d/l/w)
I. Balto-Slavic: *ba:- *bat- *bal-
------------------------------------
Russian. batja, batjus'ka (see Vasmer for all the other Slavic forms)
Lett. bålis
Lithuanian. batis
II. Germanic: *bo:-w *bo:-l
---------------------------
OldNorse dial. boa 'brother',
Middle Low German: bo:le 'Bruder, näher Verwandter, Amstbruder'
Middle High German: buole 'naherverwandter, geliebter, keibhaber,
geliebte'
also:
English: boy (< *bo:ya?)
III. ProtoAlbanian/Dacian? *bat/d-:
-----------------------------------
Albanian bac
Romanian baci /bac^/ but also Romanian bade 'id.'
maybe also :
Romanian bãiat /b&yat/ 'child masc."
Even for English <<boy>> 'child masc.' we have Romanian
<<bãiat>> 'child masc.' with an identical meaning...
All these cognates are numerous enough to can construct a root
*bheh2- '(elder) brother, boy, father -> (anyway) a close
relative'...but of course the original meaning of this root remain
to be established.
We also have here 'a strange similarity' with the 'brother'-root
something like : "ba-tr" => "bra-tr" (or vice-versa)
Happy New Year for You and for All the Members of this Forum,
Marius