Re: searching for common words for all today's languages

From: etherman23
Message: 43247
Date: 2006-02-04

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
>
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "ytielts" <ytielts@> wrote:
> >
> > Is there anyone who knows where to find the common words for all
> > today's languages? I haave just learned from this group that the
> > Chinese word <quan> is correspondent with the latin root<aqua>.
> This is
> > really fascinating.
>
> Now I am worried you might be ironic. I _proposed_ (as Rob would be
> the first to point out) that the PIE root that is ancestral to Latin
> aqua might be _loaned_ from a Sino-Tibetan word ancestral to Early
> Middle Chinese kwen' "watering chanel".

There seem to be a few Sino-Tibetan (or perhaps Tibeto-Burman) words
that are similar to PIE words, which may be borrowings.

All PST roots are from Matisoff and all PIE roots are from Pokorny

PST *?ay go PIE *ei go
PST *ba shine, bright PE *bHe (with numerous root determinatives)
shine, white
PST *bal tired PIE *bH(e)la:g weak, ridiculous *bHeleu hit, weak, ill
*bHleus weak, mild
PST *pleN flat surface PIE *pel& flat and wide
PST *pliN full, plenty PIE *pel full
PST *pWar fire PIE *pewo:r fire
PST *bya bee, bird PIE *bHei bee
PST *?-da put, place PIE *dHe: put, place
PST *daN speech, language PIE *dng'Hu: tongue
PST *gaw call PIE *g'Hau call
PST *d-kW&y-n dog PIE *k'won dog
PST *lay/ley change, exchange, buy, barter PIE *le:(i) grant,
possession, acquire, possess

I've made no attempt here to be complete. I've merely eyeballed the
PST wordlist looking for words that looked familiar from PIE. Before
you all ask: I am not suggesting a genetic link between PIE and PST.