Re: pre-Nostratic *male[:]k?xa, 'milk (vb.)'

Despised as Ruhlen may be by at least some Cybalisters, one of his
better-looking roots is "MALIQ'A "to suck(le), nurse, breast", with
exemplars from (besides the IE and AA of Patrick's posting) Uralic,
Dravidian, Eskimo-Aleut, Caucasian and Amerind.
Dan

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Patrick Ryan" <proto-language@...>
wrote:

>
> The question of PIE *melgh-, 'milk', seems to have died a quiet death.
>
> In this form, it corresponds _exactly_ in my tables of conversions

to Arabic m-l-g, which Ishinan furnished for us.

>
> I would analyze this as 'hang from while giving a sliding bite' =

'nurse' properly rather than 'milk (vb.) [an animal'].

>
> There is a Sumerian malga (for *malka[?]) in malga kalam-ma,

'milk-jar[?] of the land', a title of the king but the evidence for
this is only circumstantial; i.e. next to non-existent (the sign for
malga is, however, written with the sign for 'drinking/eating bowl'
_within_ a jar).

>
> Another 'longshot' is Egyptian mnH, 'froth (on lips)'.
>
> While it appears virtually certain that the PIE and Arabic words are

related, these other possible cognates would suggest a word old enough
to be considered for S-Tib.

>
> I am VERY reluctant to suggest a triliteral root sufficiently

ancient to be possibly found in S-Tib.

>
> I thought this might be fun to kick around for a while â€" the

etymology, folks, not me!

>