On 2006-01-30 14:38, Piotr Gasiorowski wrote:
> Of course a loan from OC to
> _PIE_ can be ruled out for chronological reasons (as opposed to, say, a
> loan from some eastern IE dialect into OC)...
By the way, if Pulleyblank's reconstruction of OC *s^&'l 'west' is
correct, the word, isolated in Sino-Tibetan, may be a loan from
Tocharian, as already suggested by Blaz^ek. Cf. Toch. (A) s.ul, (B)
s.ale 'mountain' < *swelo-, hence the Tocharian terms for 'the direction
where the mountains are', (B) os.s.ale < *h1n.-swelo- (Adams; lit. 'in
the mountain'), (A) s.ulin~c (lit. 'pertaining to the mountain'). Both
terms are interpreted as 'north' by Adams and as 'west' by Winter; both
possibilities make sense in the geographical context of the Tarim Basin,
the Kunluns and the Tian Shan.
Piotr