UDDER , MILK, SOUR, ACERBIC & CURD. Was : PIE *udhr and Etruscan

Dear Octavià,

You wrote:

From the Etruscan bronze mirror representing Hercules sucking June's nipple (TLE 399): eca sren tva ichnac hercle unial clan thra sce, we can infer Etruscan /thra/ 'breast'.

This word has obvious cognates in Sanscrit /udhar/, Greek /outhar/ and Latin /uber/ 'breast', from PIE *udhr.

While the *eu-dh- hypothesis has the merit of offering a mechanism for a PIE hypothetical root, I am afraid the evidence given to support this hypothesis is not persuasive, for the following reasons:

The term for "udder" cannot be considered solely an Indo-European term. In fact, "udder" is one term among many, forming a cluster of related isoglosses cutting across different languages pertaining to pastoral culture. These terms encompass the following: ox, cows, heifer, grass, graze, goat, sheep, ram, hoof, horns, prairie, valley, shepherd, herd, herdsman, cattle, money, inheritance, etc.

To be brief, and to the point, I offer below five intimately related terms to "udder" in a non-Indo-European language. These terms include a logical semantic sequence: "udder, milk, sour, acerbic and curd".

Theoretically, they should not be similar in any shape or form. However, in reality, these related terms are cognates as you will see below.

To view the terms click on the URL below:

http://www.theegyptianchronicles.com/ANE/UDDER.html