[tied] Re: Of cows and living

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...>
wrote:

>
> On 2006-02-10 22:08, Miguel Carrasquer wrote:
>
> > On Fri, 10 Feb 2006 16:43:02 +0000, Jens Elmegård Rasmussen
> > <elme@...> wrote:
>
>
> >>This is truly ingenious, and there must be something correct in

it.

> >>The unexpected regularity of the present stem *gWí-h3w-e/o- is
> >>enough to win me over.
> >
> >
> > Seconded.
> >
> > I'd add that Germanic *kwikwa- is ammunition too good to
> > waste.
> >
> >
> > =======================
> > Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
> > mcv@...
>
> Thanks for your kind encouragement. I'll try to publish it as a

short

> etymological note somewhere.
>

It is impressive (yes, I do mean it).
As you are probaly aware, one of the oftenest proposed PIE-OC
cognates is PIE *gWow- : Chinese níu EMC n,Wuw < *n,`&G, Tib. ba(?),
Burm. nwa (Pulleyblank). He tweaks *n,W`&G to *n,W`&w.

Now if "cow" is connected by ablaut to "live" in PIE, one might
conclude that it's native to PIE, and that if the Chinese word is
related, it is a loan from PIE. However, Pulleyblank posits an
ablaut a/& for Old Chinese, and the Chinese word appears in Tibetan
and Burman too. So it seems we are back where we started: it could
be loan either way (or from a third source?)


Torsten